Project Financing

Guaranteed Energy Savings is a vehicle to decrease growing utility costs. This is accomplished through a progressive contracting process that enables mass upgrades of building components such as lighting, HVAC, water, among others to be replaced through a budget neutral process. These upgrades play an important role, significantly reducing energy usage, which results in decreased utility spending to operate the project. Each state has different regulations regarding their guaranteed energy savings programs.

Benefit: Performance-based procurement and financing mechanism that leverages energy and operational savings achieved through the installation and implementation of energy efficient and renewable energy equipment measures

Like a Solar PPA, Energy as a Service payments are based on a measured quantity of energy (kilowatt-hours of electricity) saved, enabling customers to treat energy efficiency as a resource to fund improvement and to eliminate costly maintenance associated with outdated equipment. The EaaS is a “pay for performance model” where the finance partner takes on the project risk, while the customer only pays for the actual realized savings. The EaaS method is different than other forms of financing since it delivers an ongoing service beyond just installing new equipment and is off-balance sheet, and an EaaS agreement typically covers project costs, ongoing performance risk, includes full service maintenance and monitoring.

Benefits: Off-balance sheet, no up-front cost, pay for performance, ongoing maintenance and monitoring

On-Bill Financing (OBF) allows eligible commercial customers to obtain 0% interest loans for a wide variety of energy projects. Best of all, with OBF, the loan is paid back based on the monthly energy savings via installments on the customer’s monthly energy bill. The loan is engineered and verified by the utility company to ensure “bill neutrality”, meaning the customer will not be charged more than the monthly energy savings during the loan term. After the loan is repaid, any energy savings that results from the new energy efficiency equipment will translate into lower utility costs.

Benefits: 0% interest, easy qualification process, no-upfront cost, bill neutrality

An energy savings performance contract is a turn-key service that provides customers with a set of energy-efficient technologies and upgrades that are implemented and paid for in full, or partially, using the utility savings generated by these measures. Our approach to performance contracting involves providing an energy efficient design, guaranteed utility savings and reliable financial analyses combined with a project delivery system that is unparalleled in the industry. The energy efficient design ensures that your building maximizes its performance and minimizes its operating cost and environmental impact.

Benefits: Completed project that uses energy-efficient systems to improve thermal comfort and indoor air quality, while reducing energy consumption and costs, which then leads to reduced operating costs. An additional benefit includes your building’s value upon resale

Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy is a financing tool that allows commercial and multifamily property owners to finance qualifying energy efficiency, water conservation, and other clean energy improvements on existing and newly constructed properties, with repayment of the financing through a voluntary assessment on their property tax bill. Property owners can use C-PACE to receive long-term (up to 20-year) financing for as much as 100% of the cost of these improvements making projects cost-effective and cashflow positive. The security of the tax lien is key to this project as the lien is attached to the property and transfers with ownership.

Benefits: No-upfront cost, cash flow positive, up to 20-year financing, collateralized by the property and transferable with new ownership

A Capital or Operating lease is like a bank loan. In most cases the capital lease agreement allows for a monthly payment that is less than the projected monthly energy savings, creating a positive cashflow. Under terms of the capital lease you own the energy efficient equipment for most legal and accounting purposes and as such, you must declare the equipment as an asset and the pre-determined lease payments as a liability. During the duration of the loan term, the finance company secures the loan using the equipment as collateral and releases this encumbrance at the end of the term.

Benefits: No-upfront cost, quick approval process, low minimum finance amounts

The Solar Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) allows for a zero upfront cost solar installation. The power purchase provider maintains ownership of the system and is responsible for monitoring and maintaining the system to ensure power production is maximized with the solar project. The PPA acts like a second utility company, providing clean renewable energy at a cost-per-Kilowatt hour that is less than the existing utility company providers.

Benefits: No-upfront cost, quick approval process, low minimum finance amount

Our Utility Incentive Team is responsible for capturing utility rebates to help offset energy project costs. Understanding the nuances of how the incentive programs operate and requirements to ensure our projects qualify for the maximum incentives is part of the value offered by our team. In most cases, we will handle all the utility approval, pre- and post-inspection, and invoicing requirements, and even take payment directly from the utility company, reducing the overall project cost. Whether you have one site or hundreds across the country, we will ensure that you capture the most funding available by utilities programs large and small.