The Better Buildings Financing Navigator is a web-based tool designed to help private and public sector organizations discover financing solutions for energy efficiency projects that meet their unique needs. Through the Financing Navigator, multi-family building owners, facility and energy managers, and other decision-makers can connect with financiers, including banks and financial institutions, to pursue energy-saving measures.
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This presentation describes how PG&E is using advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) to enhance their advanced home upgrade whole-house retrofit program, on-bill financing, and residential pay for performance (P4P) program.
This presentation provides an overview of energy efficiency financing for low- and moderate-income households, including a sector overview, consumer protections, financing products, and lessons learned.
This presentation provides an overview of ACEEE's nationwide study of utility provider incentives for the multifamily buildings sector, as well as a broad overview of other sources of funds for energy and water conservation. This session covered the latest news regarding state energy programs, local green banks, weatherization funds, tax credits, and more.
This document defines consumer protection policies for California's statewide Open PACE program, which is implemented at the local level for residential and commercial property owners. Property assessed clean energy (PACE) programs enable homeowners to finance energy efficiency, renewable energy, and water efficiency improvements. These recommended consumer protection policies can help guide PACE Program implementation to ensure homeowners realize maximum benefit.
Residential Property Assessed Clean Energy (R-PACE) -- A Primer for State and Local Energy Officials
This presentation introduces the Energy Programs Consortium report, Residential Property Assessed Clean Energy (R-PACE) - A Primer for State and Local Energy Officials. It also covers R-PACE statistics, program details, comparisons with other financing options, and consumer protections.
This presentation covers the state of the efficiency financing industry and topics including trends in both new and old financing products, key policy changes affecting the industry, and the market outlook for 2018 and beyond.
This document provides updated best practice guidelines to help implement the Policy Framework for PACE Financing Programs, initially announced on October 18, 2009. DOE has developed these revisions to the original “Guidelines for Pilot PACE Financing Programs,” initially issued on May 7, 2010, to reflect the evolving structure of the PACE market and incorporate lessons learned from various PACE programs that have been successfully implemented. The revised and updated guidelines focus specifically on best practices and guidelines for residential PACE financing programs.
This report is a guide to all customer-facing financing products—products offered by a lender directly to a borrower—used to pay for energy efficiency. Intended for state and local governments that are deciding whether to start a new program, tune up and existing program, or create a Green Bank, it provides information on the full range of financing product options for target participants, the tradeoffs of various products, and potential advantages and disadvantages for different types of customers.
This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on how organizations can diversify and grow new revenue streams and types of financing approaches used to make resources stretch further and help homeowners finance upgrades. Speakers include Connecticut Green Bank, Sealed, and Craft3.
This paper examines the current state of energy efficiency financing, highlighting segments of strength such as cars, green buildings, and energy service companies, and offering areas that are underserved, including residential low-income and moderate-income households and multifamily housing.
This paper describes the current state of energy efficiency financing, highlighting what is and isn’t working, while offering a look at the future of the industry.
This case study features New York City Energy Efficiency Corporation (NYCEEC), a member that focuses on financing energy efficiency and clean energy upgrades for multifamily buildings in the city and surrounding communities.
This paper analyzes Bank of America's $55 million initiative to provide low-cost funding and grant support to advance energy efficiency investment in low- to moderate-income communities. The funding supported community development financial institutions (CDFIs) in developing and enhancing efficiency programs for residential, commercial, and multifamily buildings. We report on loan performance, energy savings, and the degree to which the savings offset the cost of the energy efficiency investment.
Lessons Learned and the Better Buildings Residential Program Solution Center
Take you on a tour of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Better Buildings Residential Program Solution Center content and functionality and explore how you can use the Solution Center to help design, implement, and evaluate residential energy efficiency programs. Program examples focus on contractor engagement and workforce development. Learn how to support and partner with the workforce who will deliver your program’s energy efficiency services by understanding their capacity, recruiting contractor partners, enabling technical training and business development support, and refining program processes over time.
This presentation covers the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development's Multi-family Energy Efficiency and Housing Affordability (MEEHA) programs.
National Housing & Rehabilitation Association has collected a number of energy efficiency factsheets and resources on their Preservation Through Energy Efficiency Initiative Library.
This presentation covers the features of well-designed energy efficiency programs for multifamily affordable housing.
This Better Buildings Residential Program Solution Center presentation covers how you can use the Solution Center to help design, implement, and evaluate your residential energy efficiency program. In this presentation you will learn how programs have successfully used financing to complete more upgrades and strategies for you to consider for your own program.
This presentation covers Elevate Energy's full service comprehensive approach for improving low income multifamily housing.
This report is targeted at both policymakers and program administrators who are less familiar with secondary markets and their significance in the energy efficiency context, as well as those that are more familiar with these concepts and may be actively considering secondary market strategies. It covers how efficient access to capital from secondary markets -- reselling energy loans to investors to replenish program funds -- is being advanced as an important enabler of the energy efficiency industry “at scale.”
The Financing Implementation Plan Template will help you develop a strategy for planning, operating, and evaluating your financing activities.
The Better Building Residential Program Implementation Plan Template will help you develop a strategy for planning, operating, and evaluating a successful residential energy efficiency program. The template includes sections for all six program components (i.e., Market Position & Business Model, Program Design & Customer Experience, Evaluation & Data Collection, Marketing & Outreach, Financing, and Contractor Engagement & Workforce Development).
The Better Building Residential Program Implementation Plan Template will help you develop a strategy for planning, operating, and evaluating a successful residential energy efficiency program. The template includes sections for all six program components (i.e., Market Position & Business Model, Program Design & Customer Experience, Evaluation & Data Collection, Marketing & Outreach, Financing, and Contractor Engagement & Workforce Development).
This handout summarizes the key lessons learned regarding financing contained in the Better Buildings Residential Program Solution Center.
This case study interview shares how GTECH (Growth Through Energy and Community Health) Strategies, a Better Buildings Residential Network member, developed and maintains strong strategic partnerships with trusted local companies and organizations to meet a shared goal of completing 100 home energy upgrade projects.
Better Together: Linking and Leveraging Energy Programs for Low-Income Households
This presentation includes a series of case studies to highlight effective efforts by state and local agencies, non-profits, and utilities to bring energy efficiency and renewable energy (EE/RE) to low-income households. It explores the topic of linking and leveraging EE/RE programs for limited-income households, including the need to coordinate with other energy assistance programs.
This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on innovative financing approaches programs are using to support residential energy efficiency.
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.
This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on how to market energy efficiency upgrades in the multifamily housing sector.
This report lays the groundwork for a dialogue to explore regulatory and policy mechanisms for ensuring that efficiency financing initiatives provide value for society and protection for consumers. Through case studies of Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts, California, and Maryland, it explores emerging issues that jurisdictions will need to tackle when considering an increased reliance on financing.
This report summarizes the legal framework, need for, and viability of establishing a Residential Property Assessed Clean Energy (R-PACE) program in Connecticut.
This case study presents information about the AlabamaWISE program. It includes background information, approaches the program took to enhance home energy efficiency, and results achieved by the program.
This document summarizes top takeaways shared by Better Buildings Residential Network members on Peer Exchange Calls, from tips to collaborating with utilities to cost-effective rebate models.
This Better Buildings Residential Network Partnerships Toolkit includes templates, tools, guides, and examples to help energy efficiency organizations engage in partnerships that leverage resources and strengthen their programs.
During the 2014 legislative session, the Maryland General Assembly passed Senate Bill 985 (Chapter 365 of the 2014 Laws of Maryland) entitled “Maryland Clean Energy Center—Green Banks & Clean Bank Financing Study,” which directed MCEC to study the feasibility of developing a green bank for the State of Maryland. This study focuses primarily on the role of green banks in financing renewable energy and energy efficiency and on the potential need for a green bank in Maryland.
This report proposes a set of data elements that should be collected for each residential and non-residential project, including borrower, property, project, and financing information at the time of the installation. The data set also includes post-installation information on the performance of both the financing and the project. These data elements were selected based on an assessment of various data “users” (financial institutions, policy makers, vendors, program administrators, etc.) and their “uses” for the data (what questions would the users want the data to answer). The report also sets out the sources of the data and a methodology for collecting, managing and providing access to the data, and addresses privacy issues and the use of data anonymization and aggregation.
The California investor-owned utilities -- Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), Southern California Edison (SCE), Southern California Gas (SoCalGas), and San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), referred to collectively as the IOUs or Joint Utilities -- are designing seven energy efficiency financing pilot programs at the California Public Utilities Commission’s (CPUC's) direction. To help inform the pilot design process and subsequent evaluation efforts, this report summarizes a comprehensive review of 15 existing financing programs representing noteworthy program models across the United States and around the globe.
This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on integrating contractors with the loan process.
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.
Energy Efficiency and Conservation Loan Program Webinar Series: #3 Residential Energy Efficiency Deep Dive, Part One
This webinar is the third (in a series of six) hosted by USDA Rural Utility Service (RUS) and focusing on the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Loan Program (EECLP). The first in a two-part series, this webinar shares best practices from the more than 40 competitively selected state and local governments who participated in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Better Buildings Neighborhood Program, including market position and business model, program design and customer experience, evaluation and data collection, marketing and outreach, financing, and contractor engagement and workforce development.
Energy Efficiency Financing Programs: Financing Energy Improvements on Utility Bills
This webcast provides a market update and key program design considerations for on-bill financing programs.
SEEA created this document to inform the planning, design and delivery of early-stage energy efficiency programs in the Southeast. This document captures general concepts essential to the successful development and implementation of robust program portfolios, as well as lessons learned from prior experience on the regional and national levels.
There are more than 17 million multifamily households nationwide, yet they remain a significant and mostly untapped opportunity for energy efficiency gains. Many cities and states that have embraced energy retrofitting as a job creator and boon to both the environment and economy have yet to address potential savings in multifamily properties, primarily because of obstacles not faced by single family and commercial properties. This paper discusses two barriers -- a lack of information and financing -- that stand in the way of multifamily energy retrofits.
Financing Energy Improvements on Utility Bills: Case Studies from the Field
This webcast provided an overview of on-bill financing programs, and presented three case studies: Manitoba Hydro, New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, and Pacific Gas & Electric (California).
This report provides an overview of the current state of on-bill programs and provides actionable insights on key program design considerations for on-bill lending programs.
The Financing Program Decision Tool is for state and local governments just starting their clean energy financing programs. The tool provides information on the different types of financing available and helps users identify the best options for their program.
Defines key financing terms programs are likely to encounter when designing financing activities.
This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on strategies in building interest in and introducing energy efficiency to affordable housing.
PowerSaver Loan
Provides a sample or preliminary term sheet for single family residential energy efficiency loans that can provide a basis for discussions and negotiations with prospective lending partners.
This presentation provides an overview of the results and lessons learned from 41 community partners that participated in the Better Buildings Neighborhood Program. It also provides an overview of the Better Buildings Residential Program Solution Center.
A sample for defining and elaborating on the specifics of a clean energy loan program.
A sample RFP from Greensboro, North Carolina, for energy efficiency loan products.
This policy brief provides insight into the transaction of an on-bill energy efficiency loan portfolio between two mission-oriented lenders, Craft3 in Oregon and Self Help in North Carolina.
This database provides comprehensive information on state, federal, local, and utility incentives and policies that are in place to support renewable energy and energy efficiency.
This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on new and updated revenue strategies.
This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on shared funding arrangements with contractors.
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).
This report demonstrates the results achieved to date by the Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance. It highlights the experiences of Consortium programs, their successes driving further investments in energy efficiency improvements, and the challenges that hindered their progress. It also details the infrastructure, resources, and opportunities that support the deployment of energy efficiency programming, and the approaches that the Consortium has found best suited to the region.
This guide provides practical guidance for designing, implementing, and managing a green revolving fund (GRF) at a college, university, or other institution.
This case study highlights the Help My House Pilot Program conducted in South Carolina by Central Electric Power Cooperative that included on-bill financing.
This peer exchange call summary focused on lender-based fees and sharing costs with lending partners.
This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on the performance of on-bill financing compared to other financing programs.
This report highlights program and policy attributes that enable successful on-bill programs based on analysis of four program case studies.
This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on the features and eligibility of the PowerSaver Loan Program.
This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on how to market energy efficiency as a socially responsible investment.
This presentation provides an overview of PSE&G's Multifamily Housing Program, highlighting drivers, incentive structure, results, and lessons learned.
Raising Investment Funds for Clean Energy Programs & Working with Financial Institutions
This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on implementing and generating revenue from employer-based programs.
The Small Town Energy Program (STEP) toolkit gives a complete overview of STEP from planning to implementation. It also includes access to a wide variety of materials developed by the program, including: local asset materials, partner materials, personnel materials, program administrative materials, outreach materials, and surveys. STEP has posted these toolkit documents with the hope that it will assist other small towns and communities in building and running more energy efficiency programs.
Tools for Designing & Implementing Better Finance Programs
This peer exchange call summary focused on tracking and using data to support revenue streams.
This peer exchange call summary focused on unique fee-for-service revenues as related to program sustainability.
This presentation provides background information on energy efficiency financing barriers and opportunities. These barriers may include lack of confidence in energy savings, renter/owner split incentives, long paybacks, and high up-front costs. The presentation also includes five areas of opportunity for SEE Action Financing Solutions Working Group activities.
Presentation describing NYSERDA's alternative underwriting approach for its target market.
This case study highlights Clean Energy Works Oregon's (now Enhabit) low interest, on-bill financing and alternative underwriting practices which have achieved a low rejection rate while also maintaining a low loan default rate.
This peer exchange call summary focused on assessing potential revenue streams.
Primer for Clean Energy works Portland financial offering. Includes loan term and rates, transfer of ownership, and underwriting criteria to expand access to financing for low-income residents.
A template agreement that addresses the full energy efficiency or renewable energy loan origination cycle.
Presentation on how Michigan Saves realigned its incentives to encourage more projects with significant energy savings potential.
In this video interview segment, Andy Holzhauser of the Greater Cincinnati Energy Alliance discusses the importance of programs empowering contractors to sell upgrades and loans.
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.