Newsletters
Newsletters
August 2021 Newsletter
Passage of House Bill 6441 Expands Green Bank Mission to Include Environmental Infrastructure
On July 6, 2021, Gov. Lamont signed House Bill 6441 during a ceremony at Jacobs Beach in Guilford. will extend the green bank model beyond clean energy to include environmental infrastructure. This passage increased the scope of the Green Bank’s mission to now include environmental infrastructure (structures, facilities, systems, services, and improvement projects related to water, waste and recycling, climate adaptation and resiliency, agriculture, land conservation, parks and recreation, and environmental markets such as carbon offsets and ecosystem services).
July was also the Green Bank’s tenth anniversary. As the first of its kind in the nation, the Connecticut Green Bank has served as a model for other green banks as well as national proposals. To learn more about the Green Bank’s achievements to date, please click here.
Webinar Series Continues
The Connecticut Green Bank invites you to join us as we explore the Renewable Energy of Community in our 2021 webinar series!
Our August 10 webinar will feature a panel of non-profit policy advocates discussing several key initiatives at the intersections of energy, environment, labor and housing. Our guests will recap what went well and what could have gone better – and what it all means for Connecticut’s green economy. Special guests will include Aziz Dehkan, Executive Director and Lead Organizer, CT Roundtable on Climate and Jobs; Robert LaFrance, Policy Director, Audubon Connecticut; and Amy McLean, Senior Policy Advocate and Connecticut Director at Acadia Center’s Connecticut office. The Green Bank’s Matt Macunas, Associate Director of Legislative Affairs and Regulatory Policy, will moderate.
CastleGreen Finance Closes the Largest C-PACE Project in Connecticut
The largest C-PACE transaction in Connecticut to date was closed by CastleGreen Finance for a project at the Sisters of St. Joseph of Chambéry’s convent on Park Road in West Hartford. The $13.7 million C-PACE transaction is part of a $70 million redevelopment project that will add a 292-unit multifamily housing complex on the 22-acre site while maintaining much of the greenspace and preserving the Sisters’ history and future at the property. Read more about the project here.
Green Liberty Bonds $25 Million Second Issuance Sells Out
In April 2021, the Green Bank’s second issuance of Green Liberty Bonds sold out of nearly $25 million in bonds over two days. With nearly $100 million in orders, demand this year was again greater than the supply of bonds could satisfy, showing the high-level of interest in supporting investment to confront climate change in Connecticut. If you are interested in future issuances or learning more about the previous two, please visit www.greenlibertybonds.com and sign up for notifications.
Connecticut’s C-PACE Program Surpasses $200 Million in Clean Energy Investment in Commercial & Nonprofit Properties
When the state’s C-PACE program surpassed $200 million in clean energy investment in local businesses, PACENation, the non-profit industry group that promotes PACE financing, said Connecticut’s program is the most successful in per capita deployment when compared to other state programs. This $200 million supported nearly 340 closed projects, which will provide an estimated lifetime energy cost savings of $300 million, and reducing energy usage by over 5 million MMBTUs through efficiency upgrades and renewables, which resulted in over 42 megawatts of installed solar PV capacity. The implementation of these projects also created more than 2,000 direct and indirect job years. The lifetime energy savings of these projects is equal to the home energy use of 88,000 homes, or the avoidance of the use of 86 million gallons of gasoline for automobiles. To learn more about C-PACE, visit www.c-pace.com.
Running Brook Farms Adds Solar System
Running Brook Farms in Killingworth is using solar power because “it is the right thing to do both for our business and the environment,” said owner Scott Papoosha. They are using C-PACE to finance the 47.52 kW rooftop solar photovoltaic system which was installed by Waldo Renewable Electric of Old Lyme, a solar contractor using the C-PACE program for the first time. Read more here.
MAYA Tool Provides Municipal & Regional Data on the Impact of Green Bank Supported Clean Energy Projects
Our new interactive digital Mapping Analysis of Your Area (MAYA) tool provides access to our database of green energy projects with the impacts these investments are having across Connecticut. MAYA offers accessible impact data in categories that include: investment deployed; jobs created; tax revenue generated; public health benefits; energy outcomes; avoided emissions; greenhouse gas avoidance equivalencies. Access MAYA here.