Big Scale, Big Savings: On-Bill Repayment in CA
Join us this Friday for a webinar with Brad Copithorne, an Energy & Financial Policy Specialist with the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). In January 2012, the California Public Utility Commission took a big step towards creating the nation’s first statewide on-bill repayment program for efficiency retrofits and upgrades, based on a proposal put together by EDF. EDF estimates that if 1% of California households utilize on-bill repayment, it could spur investments in the range of $3 billion annually, create 20,000 jobs, and after five years reduce annual electricity use and emissions equal to that of 1.6 million cars.
EDF has been building a coalition of environmental groups, financial institutions, contractors, and project developers to help develop innovative, cost-effective on-bill repayment (OBR) programs. The concept is simple: Building owners and renters would be allowed to fund energy efficiency upgrades and renewable electricity generation projects through banks or other private loans that are then repaid through their energy bill. The program can work for single-family, multi-family and commercial buildings. The on-bill repayment can be structured for a variety of financing techniques, including loans, leases, Energy Service Agreements, and Power Purchase Agreements. Simply put, OBR provides a new route to funding clean energy investments with attractive terms.
The Yale Center for Business and the Environment is pleased to launch our fifth annual online webinar series. This year’s series will continue Blueprint for Efficiency, with an emphasis on the latest developments and opportunities for energy efficiency in the private sector. Through weekly presentations from leaders in the corporate, non-profit, and public-private arenas, we will explore a range of successful models that make the business case for energy efficiency.
This year’s series is a collaboration between the Yale Center for Business and the Environment and the Alliance to Save Energy (ASE). Founded in 1977, the Alliance is a large Washington, D.C. based nonprofit organization that works solely to promote energy efficiency worldwide through research, education and advocacy.
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