Three webinars will cover the Residential Solar Investment Program, solar loans, leases, and third-party ownership programs, as examples of models to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, deliver benefits to low-income communities, and mobilize private capital leveraging public funds.

Hartford, CT (April 19, 2023) – In an effort to celebrate Earth Day 2023 and share lessons learned on residential solar incentive and financing programs, the Connecticut Green Bank will present a multipart “Spotlight on Residential Solar in Connecticut” webinar series. The series aligns with the opportunities created by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund’s zero emissions technologies for low-income and disadvantaged communities, which will allow states, municipalities, tribes, and others to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and other air pollutants, deliver benefits to low-income and disadvantaged communities, and mobilize financing and private capital to stimulate additional deployment of such projects.

Webinar One: Residential Solar Investment and Deployment in Connecticut: An In-Depth Review of a 10-Year Incentive Program (2012-2022), Thursday, May 4 at 12 pm EDT

Register at https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/4120056317025363037

The first webinar will provide an in-depth review of a residential solar incentive program administered by the Green Bank, including the market, policy, and practices that enabled 380 megawatts (MW) of residential solar deployment across nearly 50,000 rooftops, including low-to-moderate income families.  It will explore housing, solar potential, electricity rates, and data demonstrating the associated benefits, including jobs, reduction in energy burden, and GHG and other air pollutant avoidances, from investment and deployment of residential solar in vulnerable communities.

Webinar Two: Financing Residential Solar in Connecticut #1: Insights into Loan Programs, Monday, June 5 at 12 pm EDT

Register at https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6567252541191848026

The June webinar will focus on the role of financing, delving deeper into the structure and benefits of two loan products: the CT Solar Loan and the Smart-E Loan.  Using $8 million of repurposed American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds as credit enhancements, the Green Bank was able to use $25 million in state and federal funds to mobilize $180 million of private capital investment in residential clean energy deployment. In a venture with Sungage Financial, the Green Bank supported a clean energy finance entrepreneur in demonstrating the viability of a specific solar loan product. In collaboration with nine local community banks and credit unions, the Green Bank’s Smart-E loan provides a second loan loss reserve for unsecured financing of clean energy projects, including residential solar.

Webinar Three: Financing Residential Solar in Connecticut #2: Insights into Lease and Third-Party Ownership Programs on Thursday, August 3 at 12 pm EDT

Register at https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/2011784552298597467

The final webinar in the series will focus on two lease products: the CT Solar Lease and Solar for All.  Through the leveraging of ARRA funds as credit enhancements, the Connecticut Green Bank provided access to lease financing for local contractors, in partnership with a syndicate of local lenders and tax equity providers. In recognition of the need to provide access to capital to low-income and vulnerable communities, in partnership with PosiGen, the Green Bank launched the Solar for All solar and energy efficiency lease product.  This session will look at the structure of these lease financing products, including the various benefits that result from increasing easy and affordable access to residential solar, especially for vulnerable communities.

Join this multipart webinar series to understand how the Connecticut Green Bank, working in collaboration with its state partners, contractors, capital providers, and community-based organizations, developed its residential solar policies and market through incentive and financing programs, including a focus on low income and disadvantaged communities.  This webinar series will provide an opportunity for stakeholders to provide public comments on Connecticut’s efforts to assemble a competitive proposal under Section 134(a)(1) of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.

Whelpton currently serves as Executive Director of the Conservation Finance Network and will lead development of new program that expands Green Bank’s mission beyond clean energy to include environmental infrastructure

HARTFORD, Conn. (April 13, 2023) – After an extensive, nationwide search, the Connecticut Green Bank is pleased to announce that Leigh Whelpton, Executive Director of the Conservation Finance Network (CFN), will become its first Director of Environmental Infrastructure Programs. Whelpton will develop and implement the new business unit which will transfer the Green Bank’s successful model of using public dollars to leverage private investment in “clean energy” to the “environmental infrastructure” sector. This model extension, which was a result of the bipartisan passage of Governor Lamont’s House Bill 6441 in June 2021, covers projects related to climate adaptation and resiliency, land conservation, parks and recreation, agriculture, water, waste and recycling, and environmental markets, including carbon offsets and ecosystem services. The search started in August and used a multi-stage process to narrow the candidates down to Whelpton.

“The expanded scope of the Green Bank provides an incredible opportunity for public finance to leverage private capital to accomplish the state’s ambitious public policy objectives, addressing climate resilience alongside environmental inequity,” said Whelpton. “For over a decade, the Conservation Finance Network has explored how best to replicate the tools and strategies of clean energy and community development finance for nature-based solutions. This new business unit will help to envision a path forward for Connecticut’s environmental infrastructure and define the Green Bank’s role in making it a reality.”

Whelpton has worked with CFN since its founding in 2012, first as program manager and then program director, before becoming Executive Director in July 2021. In this role, Whelpton led CFN’s efforts to accelerate land and resource conservation by helping public, private, and nonprofit practitioners expand the use of innovative funding and financing strategies.

“Welcoming Leigh to the Green Bank team in a pivotal new role is crucial at a time when our organization’s responsibilities are expanding,” said Lonnie Reed, Chair of the Connecticut Green Bank.  “The Green Bank’s exhaustive analytics along with insights from key stakeholders in the state made it abundantly clear that Leigh was our ideal candidate for the job. In addition to her energy and management know-how, Leigh has extensive finance and conservation experience – essential qualities needed to pursue the green, healthy, equitable, zero carbon future we call the green delta.”

Prior to her work with CFN, Whelpton managed professional training programs and applied conservation initiatives for the Cheetah Conservation Fund in Namibia. Leigh holds a Master of Environmental Science degree from the Yale School of the Environment and a B.S. (Hons.) in Conservation and Resource Studies from the University of California at Berkeley.

“We are so excited to have Leigh return to Connecticut as the Green Bank’s inaugural Director of Environmental Infrastructure Programs. She has been a creative and entrepreneurial leader of CFN since it spun out of the Yale Center for Business and the Environment – bringing exactly the knowledge and skills needed for her new role,” said Brad Gentry, FK Weyerhaeuser Professor in the Practice, Yale Schools of the Environment and Management and CFN Co-Founder.

In this role for the nation’s first state-level green bank, Whelpton will oversee programs to raise revenues to enable the investment and deployment of environmental infrastructure in the state with a focus on decarbonization, climate adaptation and resilience, and vulnerable communities.

“As a co-founder of CFN and longtime practitioner in forest conservation and ecosystem service investing, I am pleased for Leigh to advance her career in this new direction and thrilled that the Green Bank can harness Leigh’s experience and creative insights to help build out this expanded mandate,” said Peter Stein, Managing Director of the Lyme Timber Company.

A core goal of this position is ensuring increased investment in vulnerable communities, including a focus on Community Reinvestment Act eligible and environmental justice communities.  The Green Bank has established a goal of directing no less than 40 percent of investment and benefits from its programs into vulnerable communities that are disproportionately impacted by the effects of climate change by 2025.

About the Conservation Finance Network

The Conservation Finance Network (CFN) was founded in 2012 to accelerate the pace and scale of land and resource conservation, restoration, and stewardship by expanding the use of innovative and effective funding and financing strategies. As a trusted community of practice, CFN helps practitioners develop and scale conservation finance approaches that increase their access to capital and environmental markets. CFN builds and supports a growing practitioner network through convenings, coaching and technical assistance, intensive workshops, and timely and actionable insight to increase the financial resources deployed for conservation.  Learn more at www.conservationfinancenetwork.org