New York Green Bank receives initial funding

An initial funding of $210 million (€88 million) will be invested into the NY Green Bank, a new initiative designed to accelerate green energy projects.

This funding comprises $165 million redirected from other programmes, approved by the Public Service Commission, and $45 million from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.

'With this funding we will attract greater investment in New York, accelerate clean energy deployment and modernise our grid,' says Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Following PSC's approval back in December, the NY Green Bank is expected to begin offering its first financial products early in 2014. The bank was proposed by Cuomo in his 2013 State of the State address as the financial engine that would mobilse private investment in clean energy products.

According to Richard Kauffman, chairman of energy and finance for the state, 'New York's Green Bank will target existing market barriers which currently prevent the widespread deployment of clean energy. The Green Bank is just one component of the state's new chapter on energy policy that focuses on enabling self-sustaining private markets and reducing dependence on subsidies.'

The NY Green Bank will partner with private sector institutions by providing financial products such as credit enhancement, loan loss reserves and loan bundling to provide security and build secondary markets. These products will support economically viable clean energy projects that cannot currently access financing due to market barriers, such as federal policy uncertainty, insufficient performance data and the lack of publicly traded capital markets for clean energy.