Energy Efficiency Program Financing: Where it comes from, where it goes, and how it gets there

In this technical brief we characterize the programmatic energy efficiency financing market from a quantitative perspective.

Financing in this report refers to provision of capital—which is paid back over time—to cover up-front costs of energy efficiency. It does not refer to rebates and other types of incentives. We gather and report data on the volume of capital for energy efficiency financing that originated from five programmatic sources: on-bill programs; other utility financing programs; property assessed clean energy (PACE) programs; state energy office (SEO) revolving loan funds (RLF); and energy savings performance contracting (ESPC) programs.

We estimate the amount of investment moving through EE financing programs, the sources of capital they employ, and program availability and activity by geography and market sector (residential and non-residential).

We also present information on trends in investment by program type, and on the presence or absence of certain program design features, such as credit enhancements and interest rate buydowns. The result is a much more comprehensive accounting of programmatic energy efficiency financing activity than exists elsewhere.