Links

See also the Financing section in the Smart Communities Network's Community Energy topic area.

DOE's Financing Solutions & Incentives
Provides useful links to energy efficiency and renewable energy financing resources for homeowners, small business, industry, utilities, state and local programs, federal building, and international projects.

Database of State Incentives for Renewable Energy (DSIRE)
This searchable online database catalogs state, utility, and local incentives, including tax incentives, grants, loans, rebates and industrial recruitment, and provides an overview of the renewable energy activities of 45 communities in 22 states.

Green Pricing
This section of DOE's Green Power Network site provides summaries of utility programs throughout the U.S. that use green pricing programs to finance new utility company investments in renewable energy technologies.

DOE's Industrial Technologies Program Financing Toolbook
Helps manufacturers work through key issues and alternatives relating to financing manufacturing modernization. Includes the following sections: 1) Financing options and strategies; 2) Case studies; 3) Federal programs; and 4) State programs.

National Association of Energy Service Companies
Promotes the delivery by ESCOs of comprehensive energy services to maximize customer benefits and environmental sustainability. The site provides an excellent definition of Energy Service Companies and their role in financing energy efficiency. Also provides a list of accredited member companies.

DOE's Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) Financing Mechanisms
This site provides information on funding energy improvements through energy savings performance contracts, utility energy service contracts, or efficiency and renewable energy incentive programs.

National Industrial Competitiveness Through Energy, Environment, and Economics (NICE3)
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) sponsors an innovative, cost-sharing program to promote energy efficiency, clean production, and economic competitiveness in industry. The grant program, National Industrial Competitiveness through Energy, Environment, and Economics (NICE³), provides funding to state and industry partnerships (large and small business) for projects that develop and demonstrate advances in energy efficiency and clean production technologies. NICE³ has sponsored over 100 projects and leveraged $26.3 million in federal funds with $81.8 million in state and industry funds since 1991.

Alliance to Save Energy -- Resources for Energy Efficiency Financing
Identifies a number of avenues for financing energy efficiency improvements in the United States and globally.

California Energy Commission's Energy Efficiency Financing Program
Makes low-interest loans to schools, hospitals, and local governments for feasibility studies and the installation of energy-efficiency measures.

National Energy Affordability and Accessibility Project Residential Energy Efficiency Database
Residential customers in all 50 states can find out what programs their utilities offer, such as home energy audits, rebates for energy-efficient appliances, and zero- or low-interest loans to upgrade insulation or replace old heating and cooling equipment.

UNEP Sustainable Energy Finance Initiative
With support from the United Nations Foundation, SEFI's goal is to provide current and targeted information to financiers while facilitating new economic tools that combine social and environmental factors - both risks and returns - as integral measures of economic performance.

Articles and Publications

Briefing Paper on Energy Services Companies (Revised 1999) (PDF)
Briefly describes the concept and practices of energy services companies, performance contracting, and third-party financing.

Energy Retrofits: History and Future of ESCOs in the Age of Deregulation
Explains how the Building Energy Measurement and Verification Protocol (formerly the North American Energy Measurement and Verification Protocol) will increase the reliability and quality of estimated efficiency savings and improve realized savings.

The Borrower's Guide to Financing Solar Energy Systems: A Federal Overview
Provides information that can assist both lenders and consumers in financing solar energy systems, which include both solar electric (photovoltaic) and solar thermal systems. The guide also includes information about other ways to make solar energy systems more affordable, as well as descriptions of special mortgage programs for energy-efficient homes. To order, contact: Patrina Eiffert, Ph.D., National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 1617 Cole Boulevard, Golden, CO 80401-3393; e-mail: Patrina_Eiffert@nrel.gov.

How will we get the money to finance energy efficiency?
ICLEI provides tips on getting city and county energy efficiency projects financed.

The Business Side of Urban CO2 Reduction: Money for Energy Efficiency
ICLEI answers questions that municipal finance departments might have about financing city energy efficiency projects. Covers municipal source revenues, direct borrowing, and alternative financing. Discusses performance contracts using energy savings to pay for energy efficiency retrofits, and lease purchase agreements.

Putting Renewables to Work: How Many Jobs Can the Clean Energy Industry Generate? (PDF)
A report from the University of California, Berkeley's Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory (RAEL) finds that investing in the renewable energy sector would generate more jobs than a comparable investment in fossil-fuel based energy. The report includes several policy recommendations for accelerating the deployment of renewables, such as implementing a federal Renewable Portfolio Standard, instituting a national public benefits fund, and providing tax incentives for companies that develop and use renewable energy technologies.

Five Years In: An Examination of the First Half-Decade of Public Benefits Energy Efficiency Policies, a report from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, suggests that utility sector "public benefits" energy efficiency policieshave been very cost-effective, with a median "benefit-to-cost ratio" of over two to one, and a median cost to save a kilowatt-hour of electricity of 3.0 cents.

Last updated: February 11, 2005

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