As Rhode Island continues to set nation-leading goals for customer-side investments in least-cost energy efficiency, increasing attention has been paid to the role that financing might play in expanding the reach of programs, lowering their overall costs, and otherwise supporting the wider and hastened adoption of efficient and clean energy technologies.

In 2014, the EERMC commissioned a study by Dunsky Energy Consulting to evaluate how new and existing energy efficiency financing strategies could potentially support Rhode Island’s public policy of Least-Cost Procurement. Dunsky Energy Consulting worked with a group of energy efficiency and finance stakeholders over the course of five months to explore the following research objectives:

1. Defining the purpose of an expanded focus on financing
2. Clarifying terminology related to financing
3. Reviewing how Rhode Island currently uses financing
4. Learning what other jurisdictions have done regarding financing
5. Discussing which financing methods make sense for Rhode Island
6. Understanding the benefits and costs of financing
7. Specifying how Rhode Island would smooth the way for expanded use of financing
8. Exploring wider financing opportunities

Links to the meeting presentation materials and the final Dunsky memo are included below. For more information, please email Danny Musher at danny.musher@energy.ri.gov.

Meeting #1: Kick-off Meeting
Date: September 29, 2014

Meeting #2: Jurisdictional Scan and RI Programs Review
Date: October 24, 2014

Meeting #3: Green Banks and Financing Opportunities
Date: November 21, 2014

Meeting #4: Recommendations and Next Steps
Date: January 29, 2015

File name: Recommendations and Next Steps Presentation to the Council
Date: February 12, 2015

File name: A Review of Energy Efficiency Financing in Rhode Island: Memo on Findings
Published: February 19, 2015