National Clean Investment Fund
$14 Billion
At $14 billion dollars, the National Clean Investment Fund (NCIF) is the largest portion of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund by dollar amount.
According to the EPA, the “three selected applicants will establish national clean financing institutions that deliver accessible, affordable financing for clean technology projects nationwide, partnering with private-sector investors, developers, community organizations, and others to deploy projects, mobilize private capital at scale, and enable millions of Americans to benefit from the program through energy bill savings, cleaner air, job creation, and more.
All three selected applicants surpassed the program requirement of dedicating a minimum of 40% of capital to low-income and disadvantaged communities.”
Below is an overview of each of the three selectees as shared by the EPA:
Climate United Fund
Award Amount: $6,970,000,000
Description: Climate United Fund (CUF) is a wholly controlled subsidiary of Calvert Impact, Inc., a national nonprofit investment firm that has joined together with Community Preservation Corporation and Self-Help Ventures Fund, two U.S. Treasury-certified Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs).
These three national nonprofits have successfully raised, invested, and managed nearly $30 billion of private and institutional capital with a focus on economic opportunity and environmental sustainability in low-income and disadvantaged communities.
With its nearly $7 billion award, CUF and its partners will
originate, aggregate, and securitize a suite of standardized financial products for qualified projects like energy efficiency home retrofits, electrification upgrades, and solar installations;
make direct investments into community lenders and other partners to drive private investment into qualified projects;
and develop customized financing solutions to make critical decarbonization projects a reality.
CUF and its partners will deploy these financial products to decarbonize many sectors of the economy, addressing barriers to capital access for decarbonization projects across six market segments:
Consumers,
Multi-family housing,
Community infrastructure,
Small businesses and small farms,
Schools and minority-serving institutions, and
Community solar.
At least 60% of its investments will be in low-income and disadvantaged communities; 20% in rural communities; and 10% in Tribal communities.
In preparation to deliver financing across the country, the program has already built a diverse pipeline of projects and partnerships that span all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico as well as many Tribal Lands—with hundreds of local, regional, and national partners.
These partners include four of the selected applicants under the CCIA, enabling community lenders to first build capacity through the CCIA and then access larger sources of capital and serve as deployment partners through CUF for qualified projects in harder-to-reach communities. This mobilization will ensure capital flows into these projects and communities for years to come.
According to Climate United Fund, their deployment of nearly $7 billion dollars will achieve a range of program outcomes: “Climate United will mobilize the strength and scale of the U.S. financial system to address the climate crisis. Our strategy drives capital to stimulate the creation of a carbon free economy that will deliver significant, tangible benefits to American communities through lower energy bills, stable and reliable energy sources, and cleaner air; it will reinvigorate American manufacturing and develop new supply chains that strengthen our national security; and it will support the development of a workforce made of high-quality jobs that expand and deepen the American middle-class.”
Read Climate United Fund’s Workplan, here.
Learn more about Climate United Fund at their website, here.
Coalition for Green Capital
Award Amount: $5,000,000,000
Description: Coalition for Green Capital (CGC) has nearly 15 years of experience helping establish 20 state, local, and nonprofit green banks and working with dozens more that have collectively already catalyzed $20 billion of public and private investment into qualified projects—and that have a pipeline of $30 billion of demand for green bank capital that could be coupled with more than twice that in private investment.
Building on this experience, CGC will create a new, national green bank that will not only invest directly in qualified projects but also deliver critical resources to the expanding network of state and local green banks as well as other community lenders across the country.
With its $5 billion award, CGC and its partners will make investments in qualified projects through loans and loan guarantees - while reserving a small percentage of capital for equity investments to meet market needs - and mobilize significant amounts of private capital to ensure that communities across the country can draw on proven financial products, including loans, loan guarantees, credit enhancements, and equity investments.
While the program will focus on qualified projects in the commercial market segment across many sectors of the economy, it will also provide capital to consumers, small businesses, nonprofits, and affordable housing developers.
At least 50% of its investments will be in low-income and disadvantaged communities. To ensure that projects deliver benefits for communities, CGC will
Implement a community benefits agreement,
Utilize an Equitable Investment Framework to govern investment decisions, and
Establish a national project labor agreement with a labor union representing millions of workers.
In it’s concluding remarks from it’s winning application, CGC shared that “CGC is ready with the team, the pipeline, the network, and the plan to establish a national green bank that will promptly and prudently invest directly in qualified projects and fund an ecosystem of state and local green banks, community lenders, and other community partners across the country. In collaboration with other award winners, CGC will transform the supply chains and financing of products prioritized by EPA and otherwise contribute to the agency’s goals. CGC will engage with and for households and businesses in LIDACs through a network of at least one economically self-sustained green bank in every state and an ever-expanding network of community actors. Focusing on these communities, CGC will benefit communities by creating jobs, lowering energy burdens, increasing wealth, and eliminating environmental harm.”
Read more from CGC’s workplan, here.
Learn more about the Coalition for Green Capital at their website, here.
Who’s In The Coalition?
Coalition Members/Named Subrecipients:
California Infrastructure Bank;
City First Enterprises, Inc.;
Colorado Clean Energy Fund;
Connecticut Green Bank;
Community Development Venture Capital Alliance;
DC Green Finance Authority;
Efficiency Maine Trust;
Elemental Excelerator, Inc.;
Illinois Finance Authority/Climate Bank;
Michigan Saves, Inc.;
Minnesota Climate Innovation Finance Authority;
Montgomery County Green Bank Corporation;
New Jersey Economic Development Authority;
New York City Energy Efficiency Corporation;
New York Green Bank;
Ohio Air Quality Development Authority;
Solar and Energy Loan Fund;
State Environmental Improvement and Energy Resources Authority - Missouri
Power Forward Communities, Inc.
Award Amount: $2,000,000,000
Description: Power Forward Communities (PFC) is a nonprofit coalition formed by five of the country’s most trusted housing, climate, and community investment groups that is dedicated to decarbonizing and transforming American housing to save homeowners and renters money, reinvest in communities, and tackle the climate crisis.
Together, PFC will build and lead a national financing program to provide customized and affordable capital solutions for single-family and multi-family housing owners and developers, driving down costs and creating stronger, more affordable, more resilient homes.
PFC is organized by
Enterprise Community Partners and Local Initiatives Support Corporation, two of the largest U.S. Treasury-certified CDFIs that have together deployed capital across all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands since 1979;
United Way, a national nonprofit that is deeply embedded in communities across the country;
Habitat for Humanity, one of the largest nonprofit builders of affordable single-family homes in the country; and
Rewiring America, a leading electrification nonprofit focused on electrifying homes, businesses, and communities.
Together, these five organizations have already deployed over $100 billion in community-based initiatives and investments. With its $2 billion award, PFC will collectively harness these five organizations—including their decades of experience and nationwide reach - to deploy a unique combination of financing, market-building, and community engagement strategies from big cities to small towns to rural and Tribal regions and everywhere in between. These efforts are expected to save families money on their utility bills as well as improve the health, safety, and comfort of their homes. In addition to providing financing and know-how, PFC’s work will create jobs, preserve and produce new affordable rental homes, and increase the supply of and demand for clean technologies - transforming the zero-emissions housing marketplace and bringing down costs.
Focusing in the on the built environement, the PFC coalition noted the importance of the NCIF in it’s application, as “Approaches that solely rely on existing market structures to decarbonize housing are not sufficiently equitable, sustainable, or financially effective. PFC’s program, in contrast, will meet all of these objectives by delivering focused, scaled, and LIDAC-first market transformation. “
Read more from PFC’s workplan, here.
Learn more about Power Forward Communities at their website, here.
Data Sources:
https://www.epa.gov/greenhouse-gas-reduction-fund/national-clean-investment-fund
EPA Disclaimer Regarding Submitted Applications (Linked Above)
Disclaimer: The narrative proposal documents linked [above] are identical to those that selected applicants submitted to EPA and that were reviewed and selected in accordance with the evaluation criteria in Section V.A: Evaluation Criteria of the Notice of Funding Opportunity. Information within the narrative proposal documents that is subject to a Confidential Business Information (CBI) claim or that may be Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is redacted accordingly. Note that the narrative proposal documents do not represent the final workplans of the selected applicants, as EPA will work with the selected applicants to revise their narrative proposals into workplans that are subject to final approval from the EPA Award Official and that reflect adjustments made during workplan negotiations. Those adjustments may reflect corrections to the narrative proposals (including corrections already disclosed to EPA by selected applicants); revisions to workplan activities due to the amount of funding received (including revised targets); clarifications to better define deliverables; and other updates to ensure compliance with the statutes, regulations, and award terms & conditions. Selections are contingent on resolution of all administrative disputes relating to the competition.