Author: Gary Decker

DC Green Bank and Flywheel Development today announced the closing of a $3.2 million partnership to finance the installation of solar panels at six condominium communities in Southeast Washington. D.C. Once completed, these installations will cut electricity bills in half for nearly 230 low- to moderate-income (LMI) residents in the District as part of the District’s Solar for All program. The portfolio of projects is expected to generate as much as $2.3 million in electricity savings for DC LMI residents over the next 15 years. In addition to solar capacity, the financing will also support roof replacements on 11 residential buildings, improving the energy efficiency and durability of the buildings. In total, the projects are expected to reduce nearly 1,000 tons of CO2-equivalent annually and are also projected to create 19 jobs during the construction phase. 

Read the full release below.

The American Green Bank Consortium and the Coalition for Green Capital have just published a report outlining the state of green banks in the United States. In total, the report finds that American Green Banks have caused $7.0 billion in clean energy investment since 2011, with $1.69 billion of this investment taking place in calendar year 2020. The green bank concept was first proposed in 2009, and there are now 21 green banks in the U.S., with more in development.

A green bank uses public capital to mobilize more private investment into underserved green and resilient financing markets to fill market gaps. Green banks have the ultimate goal of enabling private capital partners to enter clean energy markets at scale without green bank assistance.

The mobilization ratio (overall investment/green bank investment) of American green banks was 3.7 to 1 as of the end of calendar year 2020, meaning that every green bank dollar invested resulted in $3.70 of overall investment in the American clean energy economy.

The green bank impacts presented in this report are the result of information gathering performed by the Coalition for Green Capital (CGC). Key metrics were collected from the public reports issued by each green bank as well as direct information provided to CGC by various green banks upon request. Data is from calendar year 2020.

Read Full Report

DC Green Bank Board Member Priya Jayachandran, along with partners at the Urban Institute, recently published an article about Preserving and Expanding the Supply of Affordable Rental Housing.

The authors wrote about:

Making sure that families remain housed during the pandemic and related economic downtown is critical. But longer-term effects could reduce the supply of rental units affordable to people earning low incomes and prevent additional affordable units from coming online. Our patchwork system for preserving and expanding the affordable rental housing supply is inefficient. Improving it will take more capital and accelerated production facilitated by reforming policies and practices. We offer recommendations to improve the effective use of capital, to expand capacity (including supporting mission-driven owners), and to streamline and coordinate activity across government agencies and stakeholders. We also suggest ways to build trust among market actors to improve how the entire system functions.

Read the Full Article Here

On April 21, DC Green Bank General Counsel Sandy Paik joined the In-House Influence podcast to talk about her role with DCGB and how she came to be who she is today.

In-House Influence “features interviews on the ‘how’ behind each guest’s path toward leadership – with a focus on their youth during the ages of 7-17. Each podcast, divided into 10-minute sections, highlights four different trailblazers in the legal community from various industries, including government contractors, health care, real estate, technology, and financial services. Guests reflect on hardships, mentorship and early life decisions that helped mold them into the leaders they are today.”

Jay Lurie, DC Green Bank’s Chief Investment Officer, recently engaged in a conversation with Global Finance Magazine about climate change, finance sector, and DC Green Bank’s role in building the Clean Economy.

Here is an excerpt from the interview, and click below to read the full conversation –

Global Finance Magazine: What are your target sub-sectors and how do you manage to foster private capital in these areas?

Lurie: DC Green Bank focuses on solar energy and storage, such as on rooftops and parking canopies; green buildings driven by compliance needs, as they are responsible for the majority of carbon emissions in the District; stormwater resilience; and clean transport, such as electric vehicles. The size of projects depends on the location and context: rooftop solar projects in DC require smaller financing commitments compared to much larger solar or wind projects in rural New York State.

Green banks may also play a role in financing the expansion of DERs, or distributed energy resources, such as micro-grids, which are designed to reduce the need for large transmission lines. Costs of solar and batteries keep coming down, which accelerates the trend.

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Read Interview in Global Finance Magazine