Indiana green-energy fund begins lending for renewables, efficiency projects

The Indiana Energy Independence Fund on Tuesday announced it would begin lending services for  energy-efficient projects.

“We are excited to introduce this new financing option to enable organizations across the Hoosier state” to take on such proposals, Executive Director Alex Crowley said in a news release.

He said the fund could enable projects that help residents save money and make the state a “healthier, more efficient place to live and work.”

The commercial lending program targets Hoosier businesses, not-for-profits and governments to help lower their energy costs. It comes though a partnership with the National Energy Improvement Fund.

“As a Certified B Corporation, NEIF focuses its financing on investments in efficiency and electrification measures that reduce carbon emissions, and this new partnership with IEIF fits squarely with our mission and offerings,” Co-Chair and Managing Member Matthew H. Brown said.

Eligible projects could include LED lighting and electrical work, solar panels, geothermal energy, and high-efficiency heating, ventilation, and air conditioning.

The news release also lists refrigeration, controls, water-saving measures, building envelope projects and retro-commissioning as examples of the types of projects the fund would finance.

The Indiana fund launched last year, according to website archives.

It was formed by a coalition—the McKinney Family Foundation, the Energy Foundation, the City of Indianapolis Office of Sustainability, Elevate Energy and the Natural Resources Defense Council—according to a Michigan-based consultant contracting for the fund.

The fund’s three goals are to accelerate the adoption of eco-friendly, efficient energy technologies through financing, addressing marketplace gaps to support a greener, cheaper energy transition, and to leverage funding—local, state, federal and philanthropic—to support “green” jobs and workforce development.

It calls itself a “green bank,” a type of financing entity that uses capital to push emissions-lowering energy projects, per the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The entities are not banks and don’t provide typical banking functions or have depositories.

The Indiana Capital Chronicle is an independent, not-for-profit news organization that covers state government, policy and elections.