Blog

In the wake of Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, a blog on resiliency seems appropriate. Resiliency is simply defined as the ability to recover quickly from some disruptive change. That disruptive change could mean eating too much turkey, spending too much money, or in the case of this blog, disastrous climate events like SuperstormRead more

Are you a program administrator or home performance professional struggling with a residential energy efficiency program? Do you wish there was one place with all of the solutions to your questions? It’s not the Holiday just yet, but your wish has already come true! Last month, The Department of Energy released a new resource calledRead more

A recent article in the Asset Backed Alert titled “Agencies Stop Opposing Clean-Energy Loans” reports that FHFA may have reached an agreement to begin purchasing mortgages on homes with PACE liens again.  This potentially represents a major development in the world of clean energy finance as it would provide for a rebirth of residential PACE financing, which has beenRead more

Jeremy Epstein, Senior Associate with HB&C,  gave testimony at an EPA public hearing in Denver, Colorado today.  The hearing was on 111d, also known as  “The Clean Power Plan for Existing Power Plants” Here’s a copy of his (unedited) statement notes. Good morning, my name is Jeremy Epstein.  Senior Associate with Harcourt Brown and Carey,Read more

If you’ve worked in the energy efficiency space long enough, you’ve likely heard someone using the term “MUSH market”. First, it’s important to realize that this is not in reference to the baby food or oatmeal markets. MUSH is an acronym that stands for Municipal, University, School and Hospital. Additionally, it would be impossible toRead more

The 111d emissions reductions plan recently proposed by the Obama Administration provide a level of opportunity for energy efficiency and renewable investment and job creation that we have not seen since the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  Here we’ll focus on EE and RE, given that is our firm’s core business. 111d requires a nationalRead more

Part III Confidence: Confidence:  Trust, belief, faith, credence, conviction.  For a financial instrument to succeed, confidence is critical across the supply chain, but particularly for three key actors: the investor, the contractor and the consumer/borrower.  What makes “confidence” so important along the supply chain of energy lending, and why do we at HB&C so often preach about the virtuesRead more

Capital:  The first ingredient to a successful EE/RE financial instrument starts way up the chain, far away from the borrower or contractor, who represent our ultimate end-users. Continuing the lemonade analogy- let’s call Capital our water.  Without the water- there is no beverage. Likewise, without a source of capital, there can be no financial instrumentRead more

On April 11, HB&C’s Matthew Brown traveled to Sacramento, California for what has been a regular series of meetings over the past several months with the Southern California Gas Company and the State Treasurer’s Office. These meetings have been diving ever-deeper in to the details of how California’s new financing programs will function, with topicsRead more

The California Energy Efficiency Finance Project today issued its EE Finance Pilot Recommendations Report. The recommendations call for new energy efficiency finance pilot projects for single family, multifamily and nonresidential consumers, and a California EE Finance Hub.