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For years I have been hearing about the need for secondary markets to engage on energy efficiency lending. In very simple terms, this is the same basic structure that enables you to buy a house, a car... heck, a cell phone. Someone makes you and perhaps 50,000 of your best friends a loan. The lender than bundles up all those loans, and "sells" them to a the senior capital markets, who essentially buy the portfolio, giving the lender their money back so they can make more loans.
It is like a perpetual motion machine... or at least a wheel. A perpetual source of capital. Considering that achieving a 25% saving on say 100 million homes across the country, we are talking about needing something on the order of $1 Trillion dollars. By any measure, that is a lot of money! The WHEEL program is the first time that secondary markets are playing in residential energy efficiency as a distinct asset class with its own investment grade rating. While the initial program is focused on leveraging revolving loan funds coming out of the Recovery Act, there is nothing that prevents this structure from being rolled out more broadly to private markets. This is a huge step forward for energy efficiency, and I believe, in the long run, will be viewed as one of the key success stories of the Recovery Act. Warehouse for Energy Efficiency Loans (WHEEL) Program NASEO and the Energy Programs Consortium are pleased to announce that the Warehouse for Energy Efficiency Loans (WHEEL) program has been approved by the U.S. Department of Energy. NASEO and EPC recently hosted a webinar for interested state and local officials and program managers with Citibank and Renewable Funding on Wednesday, June 13, at 3:00 p.m. ET. For further details, please see the following presentation and full audio recording. The Green Deal in the UK is potentially a great source of learning for the US (on someone elses dime!). The basic plan is remarkably similar to the US. Put an asset label on lots of houses. Create financing tools to make it "free" to do upgrades. Require upgrades at time of sale / remodel. Solve climate change. Create jobs in a recession. We all live happily ever after.
So why does it seem to be falling on hard times and what can we learn to help us avoid a similar fate? Green deal floundering as home insulation rate plummets Government's own assessment shows it's flagship policy is failing to convince people to adopt energy efficiency measures. Damian Carrington guardian.co.uk, Monday 11 June 2012 The government's flagship green policy to transform the energy efficiency of 14 million homes and create 65,000 jobs appears set for failure, after revelation that its own impact assessment shows the number of lofts being lagged per year will plummet by 83%. Read full Article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jun/11/green-deal-policy-floundering?newsfeed=true The ruling describes the process for considering the proposal and poses a number of issues that will need resolution. The process and schedule for obtaining stakeholder input is described in the ruling, along with lists of questions that we anticipate need to be addressed to establish a record for decision in the coming months down the road.
Please note that there is a series of files in this package that you will find at the following direct link: http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/EFILE/RULINGS/157047.htm The ruling also announces the intent to organize public workshops on Feb. 8-10 to discuss issues and seek to reach better understandings and/or consensus on issues that we think need particular expertise not fully represented by organizations that typically are active parties in our regulatory proceedings (finance organizations, retrofit contractors, ...). |
AuthorMatt Golden, Principal Archives
October 2017
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