Open Market Financing to Finance Energy Efficiency, Create Jobs and Improve the Environment

The Clinton Climate Change Initiative has announced its endorsement of open-market financing of energy conservation enhancements for business and homeowners.

Although attention has centered on San Francisco and Los Angeles, they aren’t the only ones involved. The tiny Town of Lantana, Florida, was among the first in the nation to launch a commercial energy financing program. The program applies a financing and repayment mechanism called “PACE,” or property-assessed clean energy. The program offers financing to property owners, but allows them to repay that debt through their annual tax bill. This way, there is an immediate benefit of lower energy costs, creating jobs for installers and conservation. There’s also the long-term cost savings benefit for the property owner and the environment.

While there are alternatives, Lantana opted for the open market approach to stimulate competition among banks, energy service providers and other vendors, to finance energy-saving projects for a property owner.

The alternative provides for partnering with only one bank, one energy service provider and one insurance company in an “exclusive consortium” arrangement.

Lantana’s open market approach provides room for multiple businesses and providers, and is comparable to similar programs in San Francisco and Los Angeles recently lauded by the Clinton Climate Change Initiative.

With a population of 10,000 people, Lantana’s program has already attracted the interest of not one, but three national banks. Others are likely to follow.

The Lantana-led GreenBiz Energy Collaborative Program, in partnership with the Greater Lake Worth and Greater Boynton Beach chambers of commerce, will leverage millions in private bank financing to fund the upfront costs of the building retrofits.

EcoCity Partners is designing and leading Lantana’s program. The EcoCity Partners team will create the financing program along with a green business certification program that the participants can use to market the green goals they achieve. The team includes Renewable Funding, an energy-financing pioneer and industry leader in these types of programs, including the Los Angeles and San Francisco programs mentioned by the Clinton Climate Change Initiative. The team also includes the non-profit, global green chamber of commerce, EcoChamber.

Lantana will allow other governments to opt in, providing these benefits to their local businesses.

For more information, visit www.ecocitypartners.com .

SOURCE: EcoCity Partners

Tags: bank financing, bank one, business certification, clean energy, climate change, climate change initiative, clinton initiative, commercial energy, energy efficiency, energy service provider, financing program, private bank, tiny town, upfront costs

Short URL: https://www.solarthermalmagazine.com/?p=13548