GREEN Energy Solutions

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year with New creative financing and extended TAX credits?

Funding: Incentives for Energy Efficiency Projects

The following links provide specific funding incentives and rebates as well as databases that provide a comprehensive list of funding sources. We realize the difficulty in finding funding for energy efficiency projects, and the resources below may help ease the initial investment cost to your company.

Flex Your Power - Funding sources for commercial office buildings; internal financing, debt financing, lease and lease-purchase agreements, and energy saving performance contracts. Design@EMCoSystems.net

DSIRE - A comprehensive source of information on state, local, utility and federal incentives and policies that promote renewable energy and energy efficiency.

DOE Loan Guarantee Program – The Secretary of Energy is authorized to make loan guarantees to qualified projects in the belief that accelerated commercial use of these new or improved technologies will help to sustain economic growth, yield environmental benefits, and produce a more stable and secure energy supply. The program issues loan guarantees to eligible projects that "avoid, reduce, or sequester air pollutants or anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases" and "employ new or significantly improved technologies as compared to technologies in service in the United States at the time the guarantee is issued".





Tax deductions for commercial buildings - A federal tax deduction of up to $1.80 per square foot is available to owners or designers of new or existing commercial buildings that save at least 50% of the heating and cooling energy of a building that meets ASHRAE Standard 90.1-2001. Partial deductions of up to $.60 per square foot can be taken for measures affecting any one of three building systems: the building envelope, lighting, or heating and cooling systems.

The Incentive Programs Gateway - An evolving source of information on financing renewable energy and energy efficiency. Incentives are shown by Sector, Type (Financial Incentives and Rules, Regulations; Policy Incentives), and Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Incentive Programs.

ESCOs (Energy Service Companies) are businesses that develop, install, and arrange financing for projects designed to improve the energy efficiency and maintenance costs for facilities over a seven to twenty year time period. ESCOs generally act as project developers for a wide range of tasks and assume the technical and performance risk associated with the project. The services are bundled into the project's cost and are repaid through the dollar savings generated. Design@EMCoSystems.net

Successful examples of establishing in-house funds

 

Johnson & Johnson provides a unique example of success: It instituted a corporate strategy for carbon emissions reduction, backed up by a ten-stage checklist for increased energy efficiency at all its facilities and a $40 million annual fund to support greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction projects.

In 2006, 20 capital projects were financed by the fund, which are reducing a total of 34,500 metric tons of GHG emissions each year. Over the past decade, Johnson & Johnson saw an estimated $30 million annualized savings because of projects financed through the fund, which have an average return rate of 16%.

Successful examples of effective rebates


Equity Office Properties installed 140,000 square feet of window film on floor to ceiling windows throughout One Market Plaza in San Francisco (a 1.4-million-square-foot complex). The project qualified for efficiency incentives from PG&E and reduced heating and cooling costs significantly. After the PG&E rebate, the project had a payback time of less than two years.





Variable Frequency Drive Display



A variable frequency drive was added to the fan system at Adobe towers in San Jose, enabling the system to adjust air volume adn fan power to meet cooling load. The retrofit cost $126,960 and received a $63,500 rebate. Estimate annual energy savings are $78,000, representing a ten-month payback period.