Conference Convenes Chief Experts from Private and Public Sectors to Explore Innovations in Clean Energy Finance

(New York, NY – March 27, 2014) Today, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), Citi, Elevate Energy and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati are hosting “Innovations in Energy Efficiency and Distributed Generation Finance III,” a conference convening some of the utmost experts in the United States to explore innovative ways to fund energy efficiency projects across the country, focusing on the energy performance of the built environment such as homes, office buildings, factories and schools.

Over 240 attendees from the public, private and non-profit sectors will hear keynote remarks from Richard Kauffman, Chairman of Energy and Finance for the State of New York and Chairman of NYSERDA, and Marc Ferzan, Executive Director, New Jersey Governor’s Office of Recovery & Rebuilding, among others. The event is being held at Citi’s office in lower Manhattan.

“Today’s packed conference, which brings clean energy experts from the private and public sectors together in one room, reflects the incredible momentum in the energy efficiency and solar finance markets. Over the past six months, we have seen groundbreaking transactions in residential and commercial clean energy finance,” said Brad Copithorne, Environmental Defense Fund’s Financial Policy Director.

“Citi is committed to developing and providing solutions that enable energy efficiency projects to tap into the capital markets for financing,” said Marshal Salant, Head of Citi’s Alternative Energy Finance Group. “We know there is a huge pipeline of energy efficiency projects, but financial barriers are preventing many of them from being completed. Convenings like today’s are important in bringing the various stakeholders together to help solve these challenges and exchange ideas.”

To date, building energy efficiency has largely been pursued on a piecemeal, case-by-case basis, and mostly in public properties. This convening, the third of a series of conferences hosted by the organizers on the issue, is an effort to help overcome the barriers that have precluded capital markets involvement, including transaction size and credit quality. There is growing demand for financing activity at scale and across all property types, and capital markets solutions for portfolios of retrofits that in the aggregate can begin to profitably realize significant benefits, like lowering greenhouse gas emissions and energy costs.

“As an energy efficiency program implementer in the residential multifamily market, we know firsthand the challenges to financing this important work,” said Ann Evens, CEO of Elevate Energy. “CDFIs like Community Investment Corporation are invaluable partners in making multifamily housing more energy efficient. Together we’re pushing innovative tools such as on-bill refinancing and on-bill repayment to side-step barriers that prevent efficiency from reaching scale in this important building stock.”

“We are thrilled to see the progress that is being made in implementing and financing more energy efficiency and other clean energy projects at scale, and to continue to help develop practical solutions to the often complex legal issues that arise,” said Charlotte Kim, Partner, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. “As today’s gathering of thought leaders and innovative movers shows, momentum is building in this important sector with each step forward we take together.”