Municipal Financing for Clean Energy Improvements AB811 Programs

1
Municipal Financing for Clean Energy
Improvements AB811 Programs

• LA County, California
• May 8, 2009

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Outline

• Municipal Financing/AB811 Goals
• Financial Options
• Administrative and Technical Infrastructure

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Goals of Municipal Financing

• Little or no upfront cost to property owner
• Tax/assessment obligation transfers with property
• Benefited property serves as security
  (land-secured)
• No personal credit
• Financing cost administered through property tax
  bill

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Available Financing Options

• General Fund or Other Agency loans
• Palm Desert, CA
• Sonoma County, CA
• General Fund bond financing (Lease Revenue Bonds)
• Land-Secured bond financing (no General Fund)
• Boulder County, CO
• Commercial Banks
• Private Funding
• Berkeley, CA

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Program Financing Terms
6
Putting a Program Together

• Do you start with a pilot program?
• Who are the stakeholders?
• property owners
• Cities
• financial markets
• installers/contractors
• What does a program require to scale?
• Effective administration/application process
• Reliable regulatory scheme
• Guaranteed on-demand funding for projects
• Little cost and limited liability to
  participating local governments

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Typical Costs Timelines

• Costs
• Administrative Infrastructure
• District Formation Process
• Bond Issuance
• Application Processing and Customer Service
• Project Verification and Quality Assurance
• Risk

• Timeline
• Program Design
• District Formation
• Validation
• Education Marketing (6-12 weeks)
• Application Contract (4-6 weeks)
• Installation Funding (3-6 months)

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Scaling Up

• Should programs be run at City, County-wide,
  regional or State-wide level?
• Achieve economies of scale
• Reduce burden on participating cities
• Local customization and increased coordination
• Emerging Models
• County-wide (Boulder, Sonoma)
• California Communities JPA California FIRST
• What about the larger ecosystem?

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Benefits of Coordination

• Economies of scale
• Comprehensive network of workforce development,
  quality assurance, and resource benefit tracking
  expertise
• Leveraging and coordination of funding sources
• Consistent regional messaging, marketing and
  education
• Coordination with other partners (water agencies,
  COG, etc.)
• Save time and cost in doing the AB811 financing
  district
• Consistent program design