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Reports
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Project finance
Read our report on project finance here. Upstream of project developers are their financiers. The investment banks, pension funds, and asset managers looking to earn a return on their investments may legitimately be interested in the social and environmental benefits that infrastructure provides—but they are for certain more interested in the returns on their loans…
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Public developers
Read our report on public developers here. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) have greatly expanded the reach of the public financing of renewable energy through tax credits and public lending programs. The goal of these policies is to help reduce the cost of capital for energy projects by utilizing the…
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Revolving Loan Funds
Revolving Loan Funds (RLFs) allow governments to speed up and reduce the costs of socially important investments by providing critical pieces of finance that private capital markets are unable to supply at an acceptable rate, while receiving sufficient enough returns to be self-sustaining. RLFs have a crucial role to play in accelerating the energy transition…
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Smoothing the Housing Investment Cycle
There are many barriers to housing construction that need to be addressed on the path to a resilient and affordable housing market, from zoning to construction codes to subsidy programs. But the core economic trap, which leaves housing stuck in the depths of the business cycles, needs something else. A national construction financing fund could…
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CPE Elective Pay Model (2.0)
Access our new Elective Pay Model here. Access the updated Elective Pay Model Report here. In September 2023, Center for Public Enterprise (CPE) published the first iteration of our Elective Pay Model. The model is a free tool that allows users to analyze project-level financial considerations for state, municipal, or nonprofit projects claiming elective pay…
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Virtual Power Plants: Financing a Distributed Energy System
Creating a new DER deployment strategy requires policy makers rethink their financing by using VPPs to turn DERs into public resources. This report shows how green banks—mission-driven public lenders—can help enable such a shift using tools already present in the Inflation Reduction Act.
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Special Purpose Vehicles
Augmenting the “SEFI Carveout”: How Special Purpose Vehicles Can Facilitate Large Project Pipelines
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Making the Most of SEFI: A Model RFI
A Model RFI for Engagement and Collaboration with the Loan Programs Office
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Tax Credits Are Industrial Policy: Answering the Derisking Critique on Discipline and Investment
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is criticized for “derisking” private investment by increasing the gains to private firms. The derisking critique argues that the IRA insufficiently disciplines private firms; it does not utilize legal or financial penalties which would force firms to undertake green investment and bar emissions-intensive investment. This paper answers that critique by…
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The SEFI Carveout
Under its original Title 17 authority, the LPO was limited to providing credit to borrowers working with experimental technology. But a new carveout in the IIJA and the IRA extends that credit authority to nearly any kind of energy project, so long as it’s being co-financed by what’s called a State Energy Financing Institution (SEFI).
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CPE Elective Pay Model
The CPE Elective Pay Model is a tool developed in-house to help understand the financial considerations public utilities and other public agencies might face when making an elective pay investment in clean energy assets. Included here is report detailing the model, its assumptions, and results, a simulator tool (below) comparing tradeoff scenarios for the primary…
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Public Power Campaigns Database
This database, authored by Alexa Kane, Andrea Guscott, and Natalie Valachovic, identifies major public power campaigns across the country. Many of these campaigns seek to municipalize their local utility or replace their state utility, often but not always through cooperative structures. They generally prioritize delivering cheaper and cleaner energy, ending electricity shutoffs, and improving grid reliability.