Tag: environmental finance (Page 1 of 2)

Three Applied Lessons from the 2017 Appalachian Energy Summit

The Appalachian Energy Summit, held in mid-July in Boone, North Carolina, had the 2017 theme, “Perspectives: Policy & Practice.” This theme highlighted the interdisciplinary approach necessary for the successful deployment of efficient and sustainable energy.

Three topics from the summit—education, community, and leadership—were discussed in detail, all of which relate to energy in unique ways. The summit’s main ideas of the topics were presented in relation to the deployment of energy-based technology, though they can be applied to almost any industry. Continue reading

“Decouple” of Electric Utility Business Models in the Solar Age

In North Carolina, and around the country, growth in the deployment of solar photovoltaic (PV) power has accelerated dramatically in recent years. However, from the standpoint of financing the provision of electric power to customers, this growth in solar deployment presents challenges to the traditional business models of investor-owned utilities (IOUs). How will the electric power industry adapt in the coming years, especially from the standpoint of sustainable financing of clean energy?

Continue reading

The Future of the Environmental Finance Center

Last week, Glenn Barnes wrote about a public forum for which we hosted a wide range of environmental finance experts to speak about the future of environmental finance: the opportunities and the challenges ahead. It was a broad topic, no doubt, but some common themes arose. One theme echoed throughout the forum was that the past is not coming back. In other words, the previous and prominent options for funding environmental projects are not going to be as available in the future. In some ways, the same also holds true for the future of the Environmental Finance Center.

Continue reading

Watts Up With Cost Recovery for Municipal Residential Electric Utilities in North Carolina?

How financially healthy are the municipal residential electric utilities in North Carolina? That is a broad question, and one of keen interest to many customers of those utilities. This is especially true at a time when Duke Energy Progress and the North Carolina Eastern Municipal Power Agency (NCEMPA) are discussing the possibility of Duke Energy Progress purchasing NCEMPA’s electric generating assets, and where rate payers may be wondering what such a sale could mean for their future electric rates, as discussed in this previous blog post on affordability of residential electricity in N.C. Continue reading

The Secret to Paying for Environmental Programs

Beginning around this time every year, I start to come across annual reports summarizing governmental, non-profit, and other organizations’ progress in different environmental and financial pursuits. Some annual reports are all about finance, some are more about the environment, and some, like the Environmental Finance Center’s Annual Report, integrate both.

Reading (and in the case of ours, contributing to) these documents provides a great opportunity to reflect on the current state of environmental finance. Looking at a year snapshot in time – how have environmental finance challenges changed? What are the big trends?

The secret to paying for environmental programs remains largely a secret, but the Environmental Finance Center has gained much insight over the last year.

Continue reading

« Older posts