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Financing – Develop Resources

Develop the procurement, outreach, and loan support resources required to perform your financing activities.
Handbook

Financing – Deliver Program

Launch your financing activities in coordination with other program components.
Handbook

Program Design & Customer Experience – Set Goals & Objectives

Establish program goals and objectives to clarify what you want your program to achieve and to guide program design and implementation over time.
Handbook

Financing – Develop Evaluation Plans

Establish an evaluation plan that will allow you to determine how your financing activities are impacting the market.
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 – Develop Implementation Plans

Develop a plan to implement your financing activities, with defined roles for financial institution partners, contractors, customers, and your program.
Handbook

Marketing & Outreach – Make Design Decisions

Decide on priority target audience segments, messages, and incentives that will motivate customers.
Handbook

Financing – Identify Partners

Identify and partner with financial institutions that can provide capital, underwriting, and other functions to enable your customers to access financing.
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

When partnering with lenders through a request for proposal (RFP), establish a clear process and remain flexible

Establishing strong, collaborative partnerships with one or more lending partners is critical for successful delivery of affordable home energy lending. These partnerships are typically created through a request for proposal (RFP) process which can encourage market competition and help to attract...
Tips for Success

Design your financing activities to enable long-term sustainability

In order to overcome lenders’ concerns over the risk associated with energy efficiency loans, many Better Buildings Neighborhood Program partners offered credit enhancements to lenders (e.g., loan loss reserve funds) to attract lender participation and to mitigate lender losses in the event of loan...
Tips for Success

Tap into secondary market investors to provide lending capital

Historically, energy efficiency financing have required two sources of funding: credit enhancement funds to mitigate risk and support attractive financing, and senior capital to fund the majority of the loan principal. Some residential energy efficiency programs have successfully assembled loan...
Tips for Success

Hire staff with financing skills and knowledge

Financing can be a complicated topic for programs, and having staff with financing knowledge and expertise can be very valuable. Financing program administration involves working with lenders and understanding how they operate as well as understanding financial regulatory issues and loan product...
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

Loan Loss Reserves: Lessons from the Field

Author(s)
U.S. Department of Energy
Publication Date
2010

This webcast highlights lessons learned from programs that have used loan loss reserve funds.

Resource - Webcast

Emerging Trends in Public-Private Financing Programs: Lessons Learned for PACE, On-Bill and Credit Enhancements

Author(s)
Kevin Moyer, Toledo Port Authority,
Ben Taube, Ygrene Energy Fund,
Greg Leventis,,
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Publication Date
2014
Organizations or Programs
BetterBuildings Northwest Ohio

This presentation covers lesson learned for PACE from the Toledo Port Authority, innovative real estate finance solutions from the Ygrene Energy Fund, and financing energy improvements on utility bills.

Resource - Topical Presentations

Database of Existing Energy Efficiency Loan Programs

Author(s)
University of North Carolina Environmental Finance Center
Publication Date
2013

This database (in development) contains information about existing energy efficiency loan programs in the United States. For each loan program the following data is presented: financing mechanism (e.g., credit enhancement, on-bill financing), market (e.g., city, state), sector (e.g., residential single family, residential multi-family), and program sponsorship (e.g., DOE programs, ARRA, private lenders).

Resource - Tools & Calculators

Loan Loss Reserve Fund Agreement

Author(s)
Energy Upgrade California
Publication Date
2011
Organizations or Programs
Energy Upgrade California
Example loan loss reserve fund agreement.
Resource - Templates & Forms

DOE Template Financial Institution RFP

Author(s)
U.S. Department of Energy
Publication Date
2010

A template competitive procurement procedure to award loan loss reserve funds to a financial institution partner.

Resource - Templates & Forms

DOE Template Loan Loss Reserve Agreement

Author(s)
U.S. Department of Energy
Publication Date
2010

A template agreement demonstrating how to address the deposit and use of loan loss reserve funds.

Resource - Templates & Forms

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

Credit Enhancement Overview Guide

Author(s)
State and Local Energy Efficiency Action Network
Publication Date
2014
Organizations or Programs
Energize Connecticut,
Michigan Saves,
Warehouse for Energy Efficiency Loans (WHEEL)
This report provides an overview of credit enhancements available, such as loan loss reserves, loan guarantees, debt service reserve funds, and subordinated capital. It also discusses key issues related to credit enhancement, examples of how others have successfully implemented credit enhancements as part of their energy efficiency financing programs, and additional information on existing resources that provide further information on credit enhancement design and implementation.
Resource - Publications

The Bottom Line on Public-Private Finance Tools for Energy Efficiency

Author(s)
World Resources Institute
Publication Date
2011
Organizations or Programs
ClimateSmart Initiative,
Efficiency Vermont,
Sonoma County Energy Independence Program

Outlines five public-private financing mechanism options for energy efficiency upgrades programs, including on-bill financing, PACE financing, and loan loss reserve funds.

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

Arkansas Economic Development Commission - Energy Office Loan Loss Reserve Guidelines - 2014

Author(s)
Arkansas Economic Development Commission
Publication Date
2014

Presents the loan loss reserve guidelines for the Arkansas Residential Energy Efficiency Loan Loss Reserve Program.

Resource - Program Materials

Home Energy Loan Program Loan Loss Reserve Fund Agreement

Author(s)
Michigan Saves
Publication Date
2013
Organizations or Programs
Michigan Saves
This loan loss reserve fund agreement sets the terms and conditions of the loan loss reserve fund between Michigan Saves and partnering lenders.
Resource - Program Materials

Loan Loss Reserve Fund Agreement

Author(s)
Energy Upgrade California
Publication Date
2011

Example loan loss reserve fund agreement.

Resource - Program Materials

Sample RFP: Energy Efficiency Credit Enhancement Grant

Author(s)
State of Washington Department of Commerce
Publication Date
2009
Organizations or Programs
RePower Kitsap,
RePower Bainbridge,
RePower Bremerton
A sample request for proposals from Washington state to develop an energy efficiency credit enhancement grant program.
Resource - Program Materials

Sample RFP: City of Bainbridge Island Energy Revolving Loan Fund/Loan Loss Reserve Administration

Author(s)
City of Bainbridge Island, Washington
Publication Date
2010
Organizations or Programs
RePower Kitsap,
RePower Bainbridge,
RePower Bremerton
A sample request for proposals from Bainbridge Island, Washington, related to establishing a revolving loan fund and loan loss reserve.
Resource - Program Materials

Sample RFP: City of Independence, Missouri

Author(s)
City of Independence, Missouri
Publication Date
2010

A sample competitive procurement procedure to award loan loss reserve funds to a financial institution partner.

Resource - Program Materials

Using Credit Enhancements to Leverage Existing CDFI Capacity: Indianapolis EcoHouse Project Loan Program

Author(s)
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Publication Date
2012

Highlights the EcoHouse Project Loan Program, which provides fixed interest rate loans as a tool for enabling energy improvements among households that are otherwise unlikely to be able to access affordable financing at market rates.

Resource - Case Studies

Content Type

  • Resource (17)
  • Handbook (10)
  • Tips for Success (6)

Resource Type

Program Components

  • Program Design & Customer Experience (1)
  • Marketing & Outreach (1)
  • Financing (31)

Program Design Phases

  • Overview (3)
  • Strategy Development (22)
  • Planning (16)
  • Implementation (13)
  • Evaluation (2)

States or Territories

  • Arkansas (1)
  • California (5)
  • Colorado (1)
  • Florida (1)
  • Georgia (1)
  • Illinois (1)
  • Indiana (1)
  • Maine (1)
  • Maryland (1)
  • Michigan (2)
  • Missouri (1)
  • New Hampshire (2)
  • New York (1)
  • Ohio (1)
  • Oregon (3)
  • Pennsylvania (2)
  • Texas (1)
  • Virginia (1)
  • Washington (3)

Organizations or Programs

  • Enhabit (3)
  • Michigan Saves (3)
  • Beacon Communities Project (2)
  • Energy Upgrade California (2)
  • RePower Bainbridge (2)
  • RePower Bremerton (2)
  • RePower Kitsap (2)
  • Austin Energy (1)
  • Be SMART (1)
  • BetterBuildings Northwest Ohio (1)
  • ClimateSmart Initiative (1)
  • Efficiency Maine (1)
  • Efficiency Vermont (1)
  • Energize Connecticut (1)
  • Energy Impact Illinois (1)
  • EnergyWorks (1)
  • Keystone Home Energy Loan Program (HELP) (1)
  • Local Energy Alliance Program (LEAP) (1)
  • New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) (1)
  • Sonoma County Energy Independence Program (1)
  • Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance (SEEA) (1)
  • Warehouse for Energy Efficiency Loans (WHEEL) (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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