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This guide is intended for town officials and constituents to provide a high-level understanding of how solar development can be owned and financed. The guide particularly highlights solar project cash flows of costs and benefits, how they accrue over time between local and non-local project participants, and how financial risk is appropriated.
This report was prepared as part of the U.S. Department of Energy's Communities Local Energy Action Program (Communities LEAP) pilot competitive technical assistance for the Lawrence Massachusetts Stakeholder Coalition (LSC) composed of The City of Lawrence, All In Energy, MassDevelopment, Mill City Community Investments, BlocPower and Groundwork Lawrence, and led by Browning the Green Space. The LSC identified rooftop solar photovoltaics as a top priority for this technical assistance opportunity. Lawrence faces high energy burden and electricity prices, thus rooftop solar can be a tool to help lower those costs. However, the coalition received feedback that some solar companies were using deceptive and unfair practices when marketing, selling, or financing solar energy, costing residents more money than utility rates and increasing the energy burden. This project sought to address rooftop solar community priorities through two pathways: 1. facilitating community engagement to understand community perspectives and experiences with rooftop solar development; and 2. conducting a financial cash-flow analysis highlighting the varying fiscal outcomes for rooftop solar adopters based off rooftop solar leasing, ownership, or buying electricity from the utility (National Grid).
We examine the energy use impacts of energy efficiency and solar PV projects financed by residential property assessed clean energy (R-PACE) programs in California. We leverage household-level interval meter data to apply normalized metered energy consumption (NMEC) methods at significant scale—more than 25,000 electric meters and more than 15,000 gas meters. We develop a comparison group to account for non-project-related changes in usage. The projects include homes that replaced existing HVAC equipment with higher-efficiency units and homes that installed central heating or air conditioning equipment for the first time. We have limited information on pre-project household equipment stock so we develop a method to infer new installations. We find that projects that installed energy efficiency technologies reduce electricity consumption by approximately 3% and gas consumption by approximately 3.5% on average. When we remove homes that installed new cooling and heating equipment for the first time, savings rise to approximately 5% for electricity and approximately 6% for gas. Given the California climate and the results of an existing study of similar California projects, these results are in line with expectations. Solar PV projects produce electricity that offsets approximately 69% of household electricity consumption on average. We estimate that California R-PACE projects installed through the end of 2019 produce annual reductions in grid-tied electricity consumption of 506 GWh (equivalent to the electricity consumption of approximately 74,000 California households) and gas consumption reductions of 2 million therms (equivalent to the gas consumption of approximately 4700 California households) in a typical weather year.
The Energy to Communities (E2C) peer-learning cohort program provides technical assistance to groups of 15 community entities around a common energy topic over the course of 6 months. Every month, participants join a virtual meeting where they hear from experts and exchange strategies and best practices with their peers.This cohort, "Successful Energy Project Implementation" will explore common challenges in implementing energy projects and learn strategies to turn project plans into reality. Each participant will focus on a local energy project or priority as a cornerstone for their learning throughout the series. This presentation focuses on strategies for successful project financing. This workshop is on April 29, 2026.
Although the need is great, many LMI households may not be able to afford efficiency improvements or may be inhibited from adopting efficiency for other reasons. Decision-makers across the country are currently exploring the challenges and potential solutions to ramping up adoption of efficiency in LMI households, including the use of financing.
This fact sheet provides an overview of financing opportunities and products that can be used with DOE's Home Energy Score.
This fact sheet explores how commercial property assessed clean energy (CPACE) financing can be used to fund resilience improvements that make buildings more resistant to natural disasters and other threats.
This fact sheet defines common resilience improvements and provides key considerations for identifying, prioritizing, and implementing these improvements across a commercial building portfolio. It also discusses common barriers to resilience improvements and reviews various third-party financing solutions that can help overcome these barriers.
This fact sheet summarizes 6 common internal financing modes and provides examples for each: Capital Expenditure/Operating Outlay, Self-Funded Energy Performance Contracts (ESPC), Carbon Fee Funds, Green Bonds, Green Revolving Funds, and Capital Investment Funds.
We consider a backward stochastic differential equation with jumps (BSDEJ) which is driven by a Brownian motion and a Poisson random measure. We present two candidate-approximations to this BSDEJ and we prove that the solution of each candidate-approximation converges to the solution of the original BSDEJ in a space which we specify. We use this result to investigate in further detail the consequences of the choice of the model to (partial) hedging in incomplete markets in finance. As an application, we consider models in which the small variations in the price dynamics are modeled with a Poisson random measure with infinite activity and models in which these small variations are modeled with a Brownian motion or are cut off. Using the convergence results on BSDEJs, we show that quadratic hedging strategies are robust towards the approximation of the market prices and we derive an estimation of the model risk.
Highlights: • Health benefits from a climate-financed cookstove intervention were limited. • Blood pressure changes were not significant in homes using intervention stoves. • Eye-irritation generally improved, suggesting unmeasured exposures or reporting bias. • Stove adoption and use behavior, in addition to stove technology, can complicate attainment of health benefits. Air pollution from cooking with solid fuels is a potentially modifiable risk factor for increased blood pressure and may lead to eye irritation.
Production of economically competitive and environmentally sustainable algal biofuel faces technical challenges that are subject to high uncertainties. Here we identify target values for algal productivity and financing conditions required to achieve a biocrude selling price of $\$5$ per gallon and beneficial environmental impacts. A modeling framework—combining process design, techno-economic analysis, life cycle assessment, and uncertainty analysis—was applied to two conversion pathways: (1) “fuel only (HTL)”, using hydrothermal liquefaction to produce biocrude, heat and power, and (2) “fuel and feed”, using wet extraction to produce biocrude and lipid-extracted algae, which can substitute components of animal and aqua feeds. Our results suggest that with supporting policy incentives, the “fuel and feed” scenario will likely achieve a biocrude selling price of less than $\$5$ per gallon at a productivity of 39 g/m 2 /day, versus 47 g/m 2 /day for the “fuel only (HTL)” scenario. Furthermore, if lipid-extracted algae are used to substitute fishmeal, the process has a 50 percent probability of reaching $\$5$ per gallon with a base case productivity of 23 g/m 2 /day. As a result, scenarios with improved economics were associated with beneficial environmental impacts for climate change, ecosystem quality, and resource depletion, but not for human health.
Project financing is emerging as the linchpin for the future health, direction, and momentum of the energy storage industry. Market leaders have so far relied on self-funding or captive lending arrangements to fund projects. New lenders are proceeding hesitantly as they lack a full understanding of the technology, business, and credit risks involved in this rapidly changing market. The U.S. Department of Energy is poised to play a critical role in expanding access to capital by reducing the barriers to entry for new lenders, and providing trusted analytical benchmarks to better judge and price the risk in systematic ways.
Recent high-impact events such as hurricanes and wildfires highlight the need for energy system resilience. One potential impact of these events is the loss of utility grid power to federal sites, negatively affecting the ability to carry out their missions. Depending on the need to sustain critical functions, it may be important to continue operations during an outage of the electric grid, or at least have power restored quickly after the event. One approach to addressing this need is through a microgrid. Microgrids can provide a more reliable solution than the traditional approach of using a backup generator at individual buildings. A microgrid can enhance a site’s electrical power system during normal operations, as well as provide reliable backup power to critical loads when electric utility power is interrupted. Many times, certain components of a microgrid (and potentially the entire system) can be justified economically and paid for out of energy savings or avoided costs. In cases where savings can cover the project costs, one of several privately financed procurement mechanisms may be used to implement the project. Procurement options available to all federal agencies include utility energy services contracts (UESC), energy savings performance contracts (ESPC), and utility services contracts (USC); other mechanisms such as a power purchase agreement (PPA), enhanced use lease (EUL), and utility privatization (UP) may also be useful to agencies that have the authority to use them. Implementing a microgrid in a comprehensive effort that also includes energy efficiency can provide an important savings component, while reducing power requirements for critical loads, thus reducing the cost of the microgrid and associated distributed energy resources (DER). However, it can be difficult to achieve enough savings and avoided costs to cover the entire microgrid system, so leveraging these avoided costs in combination with appropriated funds may be necessary to implement the full project. When a site is deciding if a microgrid is the best solution, activities early in the process include identifying critical loads and existing DERs, conversations with the local electric utility, and implementation options that work best for the agency and site. This paper explores procurement options and agreements that may be useful to federal agencies interested in implementing microgrids at their sites. Microgrid complexities, implementation considerations, and suggestions to get started are also discussed. This information will be most useful to agencies when they are exploring electric energy system resilience options and/or considering different procurement options to meet their needs.
A microgrid can enhance a site’s electrical power system during normal operations, as well as provide reliable backup power to critical loads when electric utility power is interrupted. When components of a microgrid (and potentially the entire system) can be justified economically and paid for out of energy savings or avoided costs, implementation by one of several privately financed federal procurement mechanisms is possible. However, it is typically difficult to achieve enough savings and avoided costs to cover the design, equipment, and installation of certain microgrid components that are required to integrate the system. This presentation explores procurement options and agreements that may be useful to federal agencies interested in implementing microgrids at their sites. This information will be most useful to agencies when they are exploring electric energy system resilience options and/or considering different procurement options to meet their needs.
This report provides past and present information about LANL, as well as details about opportunities in the finance and controller divisions.
This report examines the household-level energy impacts of residential property assessed clean energy (R-PACE) projects using normalized metered energy consumption methods. Our analysis covers projects that occurred through an R-PACE program between 2009 and 2017 and includes more than 25,000 electricity meters and 15,000 gas meters. We employ a comparison group, drawn from other R-PACE households with similar locational and usage characteristics whose projects were implemented at different times, to control for some non-project and non-weather factors that may impact energy use. We find that projects consisting of energy efficiency technologies save, on average, about 3% of household electricity usage and 3.5% of household gas usage. R-PACE financing, however, can be used to install central heating or air conditioning equipment for the first time. These projects would be expected to increase energy consumption. Since our data do not directly indicate which projects are new installations, we develop a simple algorithm for identifying them. Removing these inferred installation projects yields average savings of about 5% for electricity and 6% for gas for those households that remain in the sample. Given the mild California climate and the results of another study of similar California projects using similar methods, these results are in line with expectations. Solar PV projects yield large reductions in grid electricity use, averaging 69% of household consumption. We estimate that, collectively, all R-PACE projects installed in California through 2019 would generate annual reductions in grid-tied electricity consumption of 506 GWh (mostly due to solar PV) and gas consumption reductions of 2 million therms in a normal weather year. These impacts are equivalent to the electricity consumption of about 74,000 California households (including both efficiency and PV generation) and the gas consumption of about 4700 California households.
New federal financial resources are available to community-based energy storage projects and new financing structures are emerging in response. Many of these new resources arise from the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which makes billions of dollars available for clean energy technology like energy storage. It also makes clean energy tax credits available to certain community entities through a new elective pay mechanism. These new resources are a significant opportunity. Navigating their nuances may be challenging. This paper aims to identify and raise awareness of these developments and serve as a resource guide for community entities considering or pursuing community energy storage. The paper is arranged around key financial considerations that a community entity might weigh: the benefits desired from the project, the costs to provide those benefits, project ownership, pursuing tax credits, and additional sources of capital. These considerations give rise to several potential financial structures that are identified and finally compared.