Experts Weigh in on Solutions to Financing Shortfall

On June 12, 2013, CBEI Finance and Real Estate Platform Launch held a panel called “Advanced Energy Retrofit (AER) Financing Strategies that Work and Why.” The keynote speaker was Jay Merves, Director of Business Development and Finance at the New York City Energy Efficiency Corporation (NYCEE), a quasi-public independent financing entity that develops and distributes financial products to support energy efficiency. Each dollar invested in NYCEEC projects is expected to leverage $3 in private capital, a higher leverage ratio than those of many state efficiency programs. NYCEEC offers three types of financial services that provide credit support to building owners or tenants: Energy Service Agreements (ESA), Energy Efficient Mortgages (EEM), and direct lending products. NYCEEC has established itself as a senior lender in the energy efficiency market by disseminating their services and achieving financial success.

The event discussion panel.

The panel on energy efficiency financing discussed the topic from several different angles. First, Joel Feehling of Shaw Environmental and Infrastructure Group discussed ways to serve hard to reach customer classes, and the future of the energy efficiency market. Deane Evans of the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) spoke about the advantages of opportunistic retrofits and incorporating efficiency into the tenant improvement process for primary tenant energy uses. Both Alexandra Lieberman of Connecticut Clean Energy Finance and Investment Authority and Jonathan Cloud of NJ PACE spoke about the administration and experiences of C-PACE and NJ PACE respectively. Finally, Roger Clark spoke about seven barriers to energy efficiency, including non-financial ones.

Read an in-depth summary of the keynote speech, the panel discussion and the break-out group discussions at the Platforms page.