ConoverBrown LLC provides services related to energy efficiency and renewable energy finance.  We assist our clients to develop new finance programs, to examine and understand the successes (or failures) of past programs, and to attract and leverage capital to fund financing programs.  We can help you to design the most effective energy efficiency financing program and to use the funds you have available in the most effective way possible.

ConoverBrown’s key areas of expertise in this area include:

Financial Product Development– ConoverBrown specializes in developing new ways to finance clean energy. That means bringing public and private capital together in innovative ways to take advantage of the best characteristics of each. From advisory services on raising capital  to establishing the structure of loss reserves, buy-downs or other credit enhancement mechanisms, we offer advice on the best ways to leverage private and public sector dollars for the maximum impact on clean energy.

A sample of our clients and work in this area follows:

Colorado Energy Efficient Loan Program #1 – ConoverBrown  designed and conducted negotiations to raise funds for an energy efficiency loan program from the Colorado State Treasurer.  ConoverBrown modeled this program  after Pennsylvania’s Keystone HELP^® Program.  This soon-to-be-launched loan program will use Treasurer capital supplemented by credit enhancements secured through funding from the GEO.  The GEO will also buy down loan interest rates for income-qualified customers.  Contractors certified to participate in the program would also be able to buy down interest rates for limited periods of time.

Michigan SAVES Program – ConoverBrown is providing advisory services to the State of Michigan Public Service Commission and the team that is now developing a statewide energy efficiency financing program.  This program has been capitalized with an initial fund of $6.5 million. However, ConoverBrown will be working with the program implementers to leverage this available capital through strategic use of this $6.5 million as credit enhancement/loan loss reserve.  ConoverBrown is currently working with the program implementation team on program design of the on-bill financing program elements of the effort as well as strategies to develop a loan product that will be attractive to lenders and investors.

Colorado Energy Efficient Loan Programs #2 In late September, 2009, ConoverBrown won a competitive solicitation from the Colorado Governors Energy Office to design a clean energy loan program that uses stimulus funds as base capital. This will involve defining target markets, designing all features of the program jointly with the Governor’s Energy Office staff, and developing an RFP to attract lenders to the program.

National Governors Association: Clean Energy Finance Support for Iowa, Michigan, and Florida – ConoverBrown provided the National Governor’s Association with advisory services to the states of Iowa, Michigan and Florida and participated as an expert on the National Governor’s Association Policy Academy team.  The NGA Policy Academy is program designed to assist the states in developing new clean energy programs, including financing.  Each of the participating states was in the early process of developing clean energy finance programs.  ConoverBrown advisory services focused on strategic advice to these three states on sources of capital and energy efficiency finance program design.

Efficiency Loan Program Design for Non-Profit Lender – ConoverBrown developed a clean energy lending specialty product in the Denver, Colorado market for Seedco Financial. Seedco Financial is a national non-profit financial institution classified as a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI).  It has as its mission a goal of investing funds in disadvantaged communities.  Like other CDFIs it provides an efficient vehicle for foundations and lenders to invest their funds in socially desirable areas without having to perform loan underwriting, origination and servicing functions.  ConoverBrown conducted this effort in three stages.

1. The first stage focused on a market scan to better understand the needs of potential clean energy lending segments.  This involved a detailed market analysis on Seedco Financial’s initially expressed interests in multi-family housing and affordable housing.
2. The second stage involved developing and designing draft financial loan products that Seedco Financial could offer in this market, and a vetting process to ascertain potential market reactions to these products.
3. The final stage focused on finalizing these loan products and identifying additional financial partners with whom Seedco Financial could work to leverage its lending pool and from which it could identify capital to support credit enhancements including loan loss reserves.

U.S. Department of Energy — ConoverBrown provides technical assistance to state governments through a new contract with the U.S. Department of Energy. This effort involves working with the DOE to provide assistance to state governments as they develop loan programs to support clean energy. The goal of this effort is to help states to design loan programs that not only maximize the amount of capital leveraged through federal stimulus funds, but that also are designed in a way that will stimulate widespread participation in the loan programs. As part of this effort, ConoverBrown will be working to stimulate widescale investor interest in such loan programs through design of a conforming loan energy efficiency loan product.

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS AND PRESENTATIONS – ConoverBrown has researched and written papers on clean energy finance that inform program design staff and policymakers about the ins and outs of finance program design.  These papers have involved extensive research on lessons learned from the existing suite of utility or government-operated efficiency financing programs and have focused on on-bill programs:

Presentations

• Models for Financing Clean Energy [ View ]

  ConoverBrown’s Matthew H. Brown provided this presentation for the opening meeting of the Michigan Saves program in Lansing, Michigan. This presentation presents several models for clean energy finance taken from around the country, describing their successes and challenges.

• Financing Clean Energy [ View ]

  This presentation to the Keystone Energy Board describes innovative public private partnership approaches to financing energy efficiency and renewable energy for homes. It describes several new approaches that ConoverBrown is pioneering to leverage private and public capital in innovative ways. The approaches described here are being adopted in Colorado, but could be replicated elsewhere.

• Energy Efficiency Financing: Leveraging Public Funds [ View ]

  This presentation describes a financial model for leveraging of public funds to support energy efficiency in the residential sector.

Research and Analysis

• On Bill Financing: Helping Small Business Reduce Emissions and Energy Use While Improving Profitability [ View ]

  This document reviews the linkage between small businesses, greenhouse gas emissions and an innovative financing technique known as on-bill financing. The document describes ways in which small businesses have benefited from on bill financing approaches and describes a number of on bill financing approaches and examples across the United States.

• State Revolving Loan Programs [ View ]

  This document reviews the multitude of state-based clean energy loan programs, providing details on loan terms, program results successes and challenges. Many of these programs have been in operation for years; others are relatively new.

• On-Bill Finance for Energy Efficiency [ View ]

  This document reviews several models for financing clean energy through through the utility, with repayments made through the utility bill. It presents data and results from several on bill finance programs across several different target markets, with information about on-bill loans (through which the financing is structured as a business or personal loan) and about on-bill tariffs (through which the financing is structured as a tariffed energy serviced charge attached to the meter, such that when the entity responsible for paying the utility bill moves to a new location, the obligation to pay the energy service charge transfers to the new occupant.

• State-Sponsored Energy Efficiency Grant, Loan and Tax Credit Programs [ View ]

  This document examines state energy efficiency loan programs and provides a discussion of best practices and lessons learned in such programs. (Prepared for the Energy Programs Consortium)