Texas Legislature Passes Commercial and Industrial PACE Bill
The Texas House and Senate passed Senate Bill 385 this week. If Governor Rick Perry approves the bill, the state will break new ground by developing plans for commercial and industrial property assessed clean energy (PACE) programs. This bill will redesign Texas’s approach to PACE, focusing on the commercial and industrial sectors rather than on residential programs. The legislation covers both energy efficiency and water efficiency.
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SolarCity Scores $500 Million from Goldman Sachs for Solar Leasing
SolarCity Corp., a solar energy developer chaired by billionaire Elon Musk, won financing from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. for more than $500 million in rooftop solar systems that the company will complete this year.
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Boston Takes Significant Step in Addressing Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Buildings
Mayor Menino’s Building Energy Reporting and Disclosure Ordinance was approved on May 8 by the Boston City Council. The ordinance requires large commercial and residential buildings to report and disclose their energy and water usage and greenhouse gas emissions.
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New Data Tool Illustrates Global- to Community-Scale Energy Trends
As part of the Energy Data Initiative, the Energy Department, its Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and the Planetary Skin Institute released a new open tool on May 2 to better visualize energy data and make this information more available and useful for state and local governments, private industry, and other energy researchers.
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Energy Expert Predicts Solar Could Upend Major Utility in California on Price
Based on the falling costs of solar and rising electric prices, Pacific Gas & Electric, one of the largest utilities in the country, may not be able to compete with residential solar soon. That’s according to a recent piece at The Energy Collective by energy expert Douglas Short, President of Exas Consulting, LLC and former Vice President at Constellation Energy.
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Clean Energy Bond Finance Model: Bond-Backed Investment Authorities
Bond-backed investment authorities are publicly-supported initiatives to create a specialized state
authority targeting investments and other activities in specific industry sectors.
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Partnering for Success: An Action Guide for Advancing Utility Energy Efficiency Funding for Multifamily Rental Housing
This Action Guide draws on the lessons learned from the National Housing Trust’s engagement with utilities and other stakeholders in targeted states to advance energy efficiency programs for multifamily rental housing.
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Banks Reluctant to Finance Energy Efficiency
JPMorgan Chase personnel have a lot of conversations about financing energy efficiency products. Despite the talk, “we don’t have a whole lot to show for it,” Granville Martin, executive director of environmental affairs at JPMorgan Chase, said at the Advanced Energy Conference in New York City.
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MLPs and REITs Back in the Spotlight: Will Washington Finally Level the Playing Field?
In our book Clean Tech Nation, which came out late last year, Clint Wilder and I offered up a Seven-Point Action Plan for Repowering America. One of our main action items was “Leverage Proven Investment Tools from the Oil, Gas, & Real Estate Sectors.” Namely, level the investment playing field by opening up master limited partnerships (MLPs) and real estate investment trusts (REITs) to clean energy projects.
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Popularity of Solar Incentives in Colorado Bring Xcel, SEIA, COSEIA Together
It seems that just about every year in Colorado, Xcel Energy’s Public Service Company of Colorado’s Solar*Rewards program is too popular for its own good. For this coming year, Xcel, the Solar Energy Industries Association, and the Colorado Solar Energy Industries Association announced on April 30 that they are collaborating to propose a temporary increase in program capacity.
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