Tag: energy conservation

Revolving Credit – All Grown Up

Jen Weiss is a Finance Analyst at the Environmental Finance Center. 

Quick … what do you think of when you hear the word “revolving?”  A revolving door?  A revolving restaurant?  Perhaps a revolving credit card?

In the environmental finance world, the term “revolving” is being paired up with the equally unassuming term “green” to create an effective energy efficiency and renewable energy financing tool called a green revolving fund.  At its core, it is a revolving credit instrument, operating much like a credit card which, according to Merriam-Webster, is a pretty straight forward financial tool: “a credit which may be used repeatedly up to the limit specified after partial or total repayments have been made.” But a green revolving fund is not your everyday Visa or Mastercard with a $5,000 upper limit.  It is the more sophisticated older sibling of the credit card, the sibling that has grown up and gone off to college. And while it is there, it is making a significant contribution to the bottom line.

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State Green Banks: Funding a Greener Tomorrow, Today

Chris Kenrick is a Research Assistant at the Environmental Finance Center and is pursuing dual master’s degrees in information science and public administration.

If any of you are like me, then you probably spent a good portion of last Monday waiting to hear what President Obama would make the centerpiece of his second inaugural address. After a few incredible performances, and a couple glimpses of funny looking hats, we heard, among other priorities:

 “The path towards sustainable energy sources will be long and sometimes difficult. But America cannot resist this transition; we must lead it.”

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Energy Data Collection Methods: The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly

Guest author Janelle Beverly was a graduate student intern at the Environmental Finance Center this past year. This post summarizes the capstone paper she completed in partial fulfillment of an MPA degree from the UNC School of Government.

Increasingly more state and local governments are exploring their options for encouraging energy efficiency through services such as energy retrofit programs in both the public and private spheres. A critical component of ensuring the success of these programs is calculating the actual savings earned, a process which often presents obstacles to program managers. This research project was conducted in response to these reported difficulties, and assessed the completeness of four energy data collection methods employed in Durham City/County, North Carolina. The study found that utility reports did the best job of providing program managers with the information they needed.

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