Connecticut Green Bank program reaches milestone

Passes $100 million in closed financing for energy projects

ROCKY HILL » A program overseen by the Connecticut Green Bank has topped the $100 million mark in terms of closed financing for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects that benefit businesses around the state.

The project that pushed the Green Bank’s Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy, or C-PACE, program over the top was one that will be installed at the Farmington Sports Arena. The Farmington Sports Arena is a 130,000-squarefoot, indoor sports facility with four indoor and three outdoor artificial turf fields as well as four natural grass outdoor fields.

The project involves installation two solar photovoltaic systems that will generate 170 kilowatts of electricity between them. The solar power generation systems are being installed by 64 Solar, a Port Chester, New York-based company.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said the C-PACE milestone is significant.

“This achievement shows our state’s continued leadership in combating climate change while simultaneously supporting the business and nonprofit sectors,” Malloy said in a statement.

C-PACE allows building owners to finance qualifying energy efficiency and renewable energy improvements via a voluntary assessment on their property tax bill. Solar photovoltaic systems similar to the one in Farmington and energy efficiency projects are saving more than $9.29 million annually in energy costs for nearly 170 building owners.

The level of closed financing that Connecticut has achieved with C-PACE puts the program in second place nationally, according to market data from PACENation, an industry group promoting similar programs. Only California has financed a greater total dollar value of commercial PACE projects.

Mackey Dykes, vice president of commercial, industrial and institutional programs at the Connecticut Green Bank, said the growth of the C-PACE program, which was launched in January 2013, was made possible in part by the support of “contractors, capital providers, municipal officials, and other stakeholders.”

“There is still significant potential for energy improvements for Connecticut businesses and nonprofits, and we look forward to bringing cleaner and cheaper energy to more building owners across the state,” Dykes said. The CPACE program requires that the amount loaned to a participating company can not exceed how much money is saved as a result of the project, he said.

The state’s Green Bank was established in 2011 by a public act approved by the legislature. It uses public funding that comes from a charge on Connecticut ratepayers’ electric utility bills to leverage private sector capital needed to finance a number of renewable energy projects.

The Green Bank reached an agreement in 2015 to provide C-PACE with access of up to $100 million in private funding for projects. Nearly 70 percent of the funding for program comes from private capital.