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Financing – Communicate Impacts

Communicate the results of your financing activities to internal and external partners.
Handbook

Financing – Assess & Improve Processes

Focus on the continuous improvement of your financing activities by tracking and evaluating data, responding to feedback, and modifying strategies when needed.
Handbook

Program Design & Customer Experience – Make Design Decisions

Solidify your program strategy and decide which customers you will focus on; what products, services, and support you will provide; and how you will partner with contractors and others to deliver services to your customers.
Handbook

Financing – Make Design Decisions

Determine if enhancements to existing financing products or the development of new products are necessary to allow you to achieve your goals and objectives.
Handbook

Financing – Assess the Market

Determine how your target audience currently funds energy efficiency services, to what extent upfront cost is a barrier, and whether improvements to their financing options would increase the uptake of energy efficiency measures.
Handbook

Financing – Overview

Ensure that your program’s customers will have access to affordable financing, so they can pay for the services you offer.
Handbook

Program Design & Customer Experience – Assess & Improve Processes

Improve your program’s efficiency and effectiveness through regular information collection, assessment, decision-making, adaptation, and communication.
Handbook

Leverage financial sector marketing channels

Lenders can be a valuable partner for programs in marketing loan products and driving demand for home energy upgrades. They are often a trusted source of information in a community, and they have access to potential customers and partners such as existing customers, loan aggregators, and large...
Tips for Success

Promote existing loan products when possible before developing new ones

Developing new energy efficiency loan products requires financial expertise and resources that not every program has available or that might not even be necessary. Finding and promoting existing energy efficiency loan products, such as loans that may be offered by a local credit union, your state...
Tips for Success

Engage with potential lending partners early, and make a clear business case for their involvement

Some lenders perceive home energy lending to be too risky or not profitable enough for them to get involved. Programs have found that engaging potential lending partners early in the program design process, especially in face-to-face meetings, helped them understand both lender needs and the risks...
Tips for Success

Enhance Your Home Inspection Business with Home Energy Score

Author(s)
U.S. Department of Energy
Publication Date
2016

Using the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) free Home Energy Score, home inspectors can provide a miles-per-gallon type rating to their clients. By offering the rating and accompanying recommendations for efficiency improvements, home inspectors can help clients become eligible for mortgage incentives from FHA.

Resource - Webcast

Capturing Energy Efficiency in Residential Real Estate Transactions Webcast

Author(s)
U.S. Department of Energy
Publication Date
2015

This webcast covers DOE's new white paper, Capturing Energy Efficiency in Residential Real Estate Transactions, which highlights how residential energy efficiency programs can help make homes' energy efficiency visible to appraisers, real estate agents, mortgage lenders, homebuyers and sellers. The webcast provides examples of programs around the U.S. that are successfully engaging the real estate community and overcoming barriers to valuing energy efficiency in the home resale process.

Resource - Webcast

PowerSaver Loan

Author(s)
U.S. Department of Energy
Publication Date
2014
This webcast provided an overview to the PowerSaver Loan; described the role of financing in home energy efficiency projects and examples of program's experience; introduced how DOE program sponsors and partners can utilize PowerSaver to offer affordable energy efficiency loans to homeowners; and discussed options, strategies and next steps for interested programs to partner with participating PowerSaver lender(s).
Resource - Webcast

Keeping Up With Your Audience, So They Keep Up With Your Program

Author(s)
U.S. Department of Energy
Publication Date
2012
Organizations or Programs
Efficiency Maine,
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) PowerSaver
This webcast discussed how market research can help spur demand for home energy efficiency programs.
Resource - Webcast

PowerSaver Loan Program

Author(s)
U.S. Department of Energy
Publication Date
2011
Organizations or Programs
Local Energy Alliance Program (LEAP)

This peer exchange call summary focused on the background and features of the PowerSaver loan program.

Resource - Topical Presentations

Opportunities through the PowerSaver Loan Program

Author(s)
U.S. Department of Energy
Publication Date
2013
Organizations or Programs
Efficiency Maine

This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on the features and eligibility of the PowerSaver Loan Program. 

Resource - Topical Presentations

The Impact of On-Bill Programs on Loan Performance: Evidence from the Green Jobs, Green New York Program

Author(s)
Jeff Deason, Goldman School of Public Policy , UC Berkeley
Publication Date
2015
Organizations or Programs
New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA)
This paper investigates the credit enhancement value of NYSERDA's on-bill energy efficiency financing program relative to its similar conventional unsecured loan program. In the raw data, while both loan pools perform well relative to credit card lending, the on-bill loans default more often than the unsecured loans. This paper shows that this result persists: on-bill loans default more often, and this finding is not sensitive to model specification. This paper also shows that NYSERDA's alternate underwriting mechanism based on mortgage and utility bill repayment history performs well, and that projected dollar savings from the installed projects do not significantly influence loan performance.
Resource - Publications

Home Energy Efficiency and Mortgage Risks

Author(s)
Institute for Market Transformation
Publication Date
2013

This study examines actual loan performance data obtained from CoreLogic, the lending industry’s leading source of such data. To assess whether residential energy efficiency is associated with lower default and prepayment risks, a national sample of about 71,000 ENERGY STAR and non-ENERGY STAR-rated single-family home mortgages was carefully constructed, accounting for loan, household, and neighborhood characteristics. The study finds that default risks are on average 32 percent lower in energy-efficient homes, controlling for other loan determinants.

Resource - Publications

PowerSaver Loans Fact Sheet

Author(s)
U.S. Department of Energy
Publication Date
2014
This fact sheet describes the PowerSaver loan program, including benefits, eligible improvements, and requirements.
Resource - Publications

Home Energy Efficiency and Mortgage Risks

Author(s)
University of North Carolina Center for Community Capital - Institute for Market Transformation
Publication Date
2013
Study examining actual loan performance data to assess whether residential energy efficiency is associated with lower default and prepayment risks. Results show that default risks are on average 32 percent lower in energy-efficient homes, controlling for other loan determinants.
Resource - Publications

HUD PowerSaver Pilot Program

Author(s)
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Publication Date
2010
Policy brief outlining the HUD PowerSaver Pilot Loan Program.
Resource - Publications

Energy Efficiency Financing: Models and Strategies

Author(s)
The Energy Foundation
Publication Date
2012
Organizations or Programs
Enhabit,
Keystone Home Energy Loan Program (HELP),
Maryland Clean Energy Center Home Owner Loan Program,
Texas LoanSTAR,
Colorado ENERGY STAR Homes,
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Energy Efficient Mortgage Program,
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) PowerSaver,
Community Preservation Corporation Green Financing Initiative,
New Resource Bank,
Sempra Utilities,
United Illuminating

Reviews and summarize energy efficiency financing models and strategies. Models are analyzed according to funding sources, program structures, limits to scale, repayment vehicles, and project risks. Strategies consider applicable building sectors, models, levels of establishment, growth potential, advantages, and disadvantages.

Resource - Publications

DOE State and Local Solution Center: Financing for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

Author(s)
U.S. Department of Energy
Publication Date
2015

This website provides an overview of financing as it pertains to state, local, and tribal governments who are designing and implementing clean energy financing programs. Residential financing tools include residential PACE (R-PACE), on-bill financing and repayment, loan loss reserves and other credit enhancements, revolving loan funds, and energy efficient mortgages.

Resource - Publications

Content Type

  • Resource (13)
  • Handbook (7)
  • Tips for Success (3)

Resource Type

Program Components

  • Market Position & Business Model (2)
  • Program Design & Customer Experience (4)
  • Evaluation & Data Collection (1)
  • Marketing & Outreach (2)
  • Financing (17)
  • Contractor Engagement & Workforce Development (1)

Program Design Phases

  • Overview (1)
  • Strategy Development (16)
  • Planning (13)
  • Implementation (9)
  • Evaluation (8)

States or Territories

  • California (2)
  • Colorado (2)
  • Connecticut (1)
  • Maine (3)
  • New Hampshire (1)
  • New York (1)
  • Oregon (1)
  • Pennsylvania (1)
  • Texas (1)
  • Virginia (3)
  • Washington (1)

Organizations or Programs

  • Efficiency Maine (3)
  • Local Energy Alliance Program (LEAP) (3)
  • U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) PowerSaver (2)
  • Austin Energy (1)
  • Beacon Communities Project (1)
  • Colorado ENERGY STAR Homes (1)
  • Community Preservation Corporation Green Financing Initiative (1)
  • EnergySmart (1)
  • Energy Upgrade California (1)
  • EnergyWorks (1)
  • Enhabit (1)
  • Keystone Home Energy Loan Program (HELP) (1)
  • Maryland Clean Energy Center Home Owner Loan Program (1)
  • New Resource Bank (1)
  • New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) (1)
  • RePower Kitsap (1)
  • Sempra Utilities (1)
  • Texas LoanSTAR (1)
  • U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Energy Efficient Mortgage Program (1)
  • United Illuminating (1)
  • Xcel Energy (1)
Residential Program Guide is a resource of the U.S. Department of Energy's Building Technologies Office.
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