J1. Green Tech Industry & Utilities

Revenue jumped in part due to the AI boom, while geopolitical uncertainty boosted the outlook for electrified, digitized building systems, executives said on the company’s first-quarter earnings call. 

Home battery installations shatter records in April, including a stunning new high for NSW and record volumes of new rooftop solar capacity across the country.

The post Rebate “frenzy” shatters records for home batteries – and doubles year-on-year rooftop solar growth appeared first on Renew Economy.

A company established by former Macquarie bankers is starting big - with a massive battery positioned to support a swathe of new generation projects.

The post Former Macquarie bankers plan one of Australia’s biggest six-hour batteries with 4,800 MWh of storage appeared first on Renew Economy.

Headline News:

• “Renewable Energy Market to Reach $2.874 Trillion by 2033” • According to DataM Intelligence analysis, the Global Renewable Energy Market was valued at slightly more than $1.512 trillion in 2025 and is expected to reach $2,874 trillion by 2033. The rate of growth is driven by the increasing global shift toward clean and sustainable energy. [openPR.com]

Wind turbines (Ruben Hiebert, Unsplash)

• “Renewables More Cost Effective Than Direct Air Capture” • Direct air capture, which pulls CO₂ out of the air, has increasingly become part of the conversation on climate action. But the argument for pumping money into DAC “weakens substantially” when it comes to renewable energy because it is cheaper to eliminate emissions than it is to capture them. [Euronews]
• “Intermediate And Degraded Land Crops Are No ‘Miracle’ Solution For Sustainable Aviation Fuel, Study Shows” • Crops grown between food harvest cycles or on low-quality land are seen as green solutions for powering planes, but a T&E study shows that such crops could only meet 4% of the EU’s demand for bio-SAF by 2050. [CleanTechnica]
• “OECD Nations Pass Point Of No Return On Fossil Fuel Power, As Renewables Take Over” • Fossil fuel electricity generation in OECD nations is 19% below its historical peak, with the decline driven by substitution rather than reduced demand. Electricity demand continued rising through the transition, but renewables outgrew the gap. [Microgrid Media]
• “States Across The Wildfire-Prone Western US Are Using AI For Early Detection” • Another severe wildfire season is forecast for the Western US due to record-breaking heat and an abysmal snowpack. With concerns about wildfires, states across the West are adding AI to their wildfire detection toolbox, banking on the technology to help stop fires quickly. [ABC News]

For more news, please visit geoharvey – Daily News about Energy and Climate Change.

The post What PJM States Can Do to Ensure Affordable, Reliable Electricity During the Data Center Boom appeared first on RMI.

Joint letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney on the urgency of the now-overdue Alberta-federal MOU on climate and energy policies, signed by the leaders of six leading climate and clean energy expert groups.Key facts on the Iran war and the energy...

Energy and economic security can be rapidly reinforced by stopping gas loss. The amount of methane vented and leaked into the air today by the global oil and gas industry is even greater than the total pre-war volume of gas passing through the Strait of Hormuz. When flared gas is added, this overall energy waste is equal to over one-half of worldwide LNG exports.

With energy markets roiling over the loss of 20% of the gas volume traveling through this chokepoint, companies have a responsibility to stop their gas loss on energy security grounds alone. Moreover, given price hikes due to the ongoing conflict, there are immediate economic benefits for selling rather than wasting their gas.

Texas’s oil and gas industry spotlights this massive energy and economic opportunity. Preventing gas venting and flaring in Texas alone could make up the total lost gas volume due to current disruptions in the Persian Gulf. Preventing gas waste and accurately accounting for companies’ self-reported gas loss is not only fair practice, but it also has paybacks for industry and increases resource royalties to the Texas state budget. By keeping gas in the pipe and out of the air, operators can also safeguard people and the planet. As one of the world’s biggest oil and gas producers, Texas serves as a case study to investigate and quantify how companies can step up to bolster energy, economic, and climate security by stopping gas loss.

Reducing system inefficiencies bolsters energy security

There are inefficiencies in oil and gas industry operations that lead to gas waste and methane emissions. The industry acknowledges it. Mitigating product loss, which is paramount when energy supplies are constrained, can be prevented by tighter oversight, better operations, and strategic investments.

Gas loss is becoming increasingly visible due to advances in satellites, sensors, and continuous monitoring. Ongoing measurements are creating alignment around a new priority: turning actionable data into operational decisions that improve reliability, reduce costs, offer payback, and increase production efficiency. The barrier is no longer technology, but workflows — ensuring that actionable insights reach engineers and operators in time to drive change.

Over 10,000 plumes have been spotted in Texas alone over the past several years, amounting to some hundreds of tons of wasted methane gas. A recent gas release spewing over three tons of methane was detected on the eastern edge of the Permian Basin in Texas, as shown below. The two leaks detected by Carbon Mapper at this site, which persisted for two days, wasted as much energy as it takes to dry over 300,000 loads of laundry.

Sample methane plume spotted in Texas by satellites Source: Carbon Mapper Data Portal, Accessed April 14, 2026.

Lowering the volume of gas we waste heightens energy security because more gas makes it to market. Conversely, supply shocks trigger fuel shortages, especially in import-dependent nations. And energy insecurity drives up the price of oil and gas, leading to inflation and economic insecurity.

Preventing gas waste produces revenue streams and boosts economic security

Methane is the main component in gas, and is also co-produced with oil. When it’s allowed to escape into the atmosphere, it’s sheer energy and material waste. When kept in the pipe and sold, it’s a valuable commodity. Moreover, when companies minimize their operational inefficiencies, the gains are transformed into economic benefits for communities in the form of increased revenues, royalties, and jobs.

The industry knows its gas value proposition. When prices are high, gas loss drops. It then rises when prices are low, as plotted for the United States below.

On a global scale, the estimated 81 million metric tons of methane that the oil and gas industry squanders annually through venting and leaking its gas has an estimated economic value today of $20 billion to 50 billion a year, depending on highly variable gas prices. (See endnote for assumptions). In terms of overall financial opportunities, the economic loss of wasted gas is twice as great when also accounting for the additional 150 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas that is flared worldwide. Given the high volatility of global gas prices, foregone revenue streams, royalties, and resource rents from wasted gas are a material corporate and national concern.

Stopping methane emissions rapidly improves climate security

Methane is over 80 times more powerful at heating Earth over its decade-long lifetime. In other words, every metric ton of methane that is stopped or avoided dramatically lowers damages wrought by droughts, flash floods, excess heat, firestorms, and other climate-driven disasters. The fastest path to reducing methane emissions is improving oil and gas industry operations to prevent gas loss. The companies that succeed in this quest are those that can keep their gas in the pipe.

Improved measurement, models, and methodologies are enabling the shift from data insights to durable action. For example, Carbon Mapper’s data portal identifies large point source methane-emitting events. This focuses operators’ attention on rapidly fixing their super-emitting assets. Separately, NASA’s Black Marble product analyzes nightlights using the VIIRS satellite to make gas flaring data publicly available. And ClimateTRACE quantifies wide-ranging oil and gas industry methane emissions between countries.

Drilling down in Texas

RMI’s study, Drilling Down on Gas Loss, finds that Texas oil and gas operators’ self-reported gas loss is likely 3–4.5 times higher than what is currently self-reported. This results in energy waste and methane emissions that are highly variable across basins, well types, and production volumes, as mapped below.

For example, in February 2026, Carbon Mapper detected a plume in Big Spring, Texas (illustrated above) that emitted 3.4 tons of methane per hour. Coincidentally, this major gas release is in Howard County, Texas, the same county that RMI’s study identified as highly wasteful. Together, bottom-up and top-down analyses can provide real-world validation of gas loss.

Across Texas, the volume of wasted gas identified in this state alone could yield some 15.6 bcm per year of marketable gas. In 2024, before gas prices recently spiked, over $1 billion in Texas’s gas value was forgone, with associated lost tax revenue of nearly $100 million. Today, this amounts to $1.6 billion in forgone gas value at current Henry Hub gas prices.

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Over half of the gas wasted in Texas is attributed to low-volume oil wells that intentionally vent their gas (predominantly methane) directly into the air. This loss is under operators’ control. Moreover, this intentional waste is frequently disguised through under- or false reporting. Nearly one-half of Texas’s company-operated oil leases reported zero gas produced or zero gas loss during at least one month in 2024. Gas leases more accurately reported their product loss.

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Why industry needs to accurately report and stop gas loss

The sizeable gas loss in Texas alone masks the scale of energy waste from an industry that is largely promoting waste reduction. For example, at CERAWeek 2026 — the largest energy convening in Houston, Texas — numerous companies made clear that the oil and gas industry is ready to treat methane and wasted gas not just as an environmental liability, but as signals of operational inefficiency and lost economic value.

Some operators note that spikes in flaring during production is too common, reinforcing the need for actionable, real-time data to improve operations. Other operators emphasize that methane mitigation is becoming embedded in operational excellence, with reductions made through equipment upgrades. Across international and national oil and gas companies, the message was consistent: better data leads to better operations — reducing downtime, improving process control, and modernizing equipment — which directly translates into lower emissions and economic gains.

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When companies reduce gas waste, they not only make a difference to their bottom lines. The war in the Middle East highlights a devastating reminder that preventing gas loss is also a matter of energy security. All told, some 112 billion cubic meters of gas passes through the Strait of Hormuz annually. Remarkably, this disrupted trade volume that is upending global energy markets is just a fraction of the 280 billion cubic meters of gas that oil and gas companies discard through venting and flaring every year. We have the policy and market tools to prevent gas loss. If acted on, this will win-win-win, significantly bolstering energy, economic, and environmental security.

Acknowledgment: Thank you to Dwayne Purvis (Purvis Energy Advisors) for his lead on the Texas study, Drilling Down on Gas Loss.

Endnotes: These calculations assume (1) a methane content in gas of 74%–85%; (2) methane density of 0.657 kilograms per cubic meter; (3) a heat conversion of 1038 btu per cubic foot; (4) resource pricing of $3.70 per million British Thermal Units (MMbtu) for pipelined natural gas anchored on Henry Hub; (5) $11.33 per 1000 cubic feet for LNG; (6) 2024 Waha Gas Hub and Henry Hub prices of $0.21 to 2.21/MMbtu, respectively; (7) April’s Henry Hub gas spot price is computed as $2.79 per MMbtu for 2026.

The post Stopping Global Gas Loss in Its Tracks appeared first on RMI.

“It is not that we have a short time to live,” the ancient Roman philosopher Seneca once wrote, “but that we waste a lot of it.” His point — that we often waste things that hold great value — echoes through the centuries.  

As the closure of the Strait of Hormuz forces governments around the world to enact restrictive policies to stabilize their energy supplies and national economies, it’s a critical time to reflect on wasted energy resources.

Before the war, some 20% of the world’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies was shipped through the Strait. But with blockades and damaged infrastructure largely bottling up that supply, it’s a moment to look at where that supply could be made up if a concerted effort is made to stop gas from escaping systemwide.

The answer? Waste. 

The 112 billion cubic meters of gas lost by the Strait’s closure is dwarfed by the scale of gas wasted by venting and flaring worldwide. The good news is that we have the technological and policy tools available to us today to limit waste and increase our energy and economic security. 

Wasted gas is no longer invisible. More satellites, drones, sensors, and other technologies are being used to reconcile differing methane inventories and identify methane super-emitters. Now we must segue from “how to measure” to “how to act.” Getting actionable insights embedded into system design, planning, operations, and emissions management systems is key. So too are policies that limit leakage and actions that amplify methane mitigation through sound financial investments and smart insurance underwriting.

Were Seneca an energy planner today, he might observe that energy supplies are ample, but only if we know how not to waste them. 

 Read more: Stopping Global Gas Loss in Its Tracks

The post The World Wastes More Gas Each Year Than the Strait of Hormuz Supplies appeared first on RMI.

Headline News:

• “US Stalls 165 Onshore Wind Projects” • The US Department of Defense stalled approvals for about 165 onshore wind projects on private land, citing national security concerns, the Financial Times reported. The report said the projects could total about 30 GW of capacity, enough to power 15 million homes. A common cause of delay is cancelled meetings. [reNews]

Wind turbines (Waldemar Brandt, Unsplash)

• “EU Green Hydrogen Scheme Embraces High-Tech Solar Foods” • Solar Foods sailed across the CleanTechnica radar in 2024 when it described plans to scale up Solein, a synthetic protein substance consisting of 65–70% protein, 5–8% fat, 10–15% dietary fiber, and 3–5% mineral nutrients. BalticSeaH2, a green hydrogen company, is supporting it now. [CleanTechnica]
• “Europe Faces China Clean Tech Dependency Risks” • Europe is heavily dependent on Chinese low-carbon technologies, with China supplying 98% of solar panels, 88% of lithium-ion batteries and 61% of inverters imported into the region in 2024. The non-profit Loom said “de-risking” policies have not led to much shift in clean-tech manufacturing geography. [reNews]
• “To Buy Or Not To Buy? That’s The Question Consumers Are Asking About EVs” • US consumers are paying a lot more to fill up their cars and trucks these days, and the spike in gasoline prices has some debating: Is an EV right for me? The national average for a gallon of regular gasoline jumped nearly 30¢ per gallon in the past week to $4.43. [ABC News]
• “Trump’s Renewable Energy Crackdown Hits Legal Wall” • President Trump has taken aim at renewable energy, in an attempt to scale back efforts for a green transition. Trump has instead favored the expansion of the oil, gas, and coal, as well as the development of nuclear power. Now a court ruling rejects Trump’s efforts as unlawful. [OilPrice.com]

For more news, please visit geoharvey – Daily News about Energy and Climate Change.

Headline News:

• “Maritime Decarbonization Is Closer, Cheaper, And More Practical Than It Looks” • The IMO’s Net-Zero Framework came out of the latest meeting bruised, delayed, but still alive. That is not victory. The US has not been passive. Formal adoption is now scheduled for November 30 to December 3, 2026, after the US midterm elections. [CleanTechnica]

Ships in the Port of Singapore (Shawn, Unsplash, cropped)

• “Lessons from Chernobyl, 40 Years Later” • The Chernobyl Disaster had seismic political consequences. No less an authority than General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev speculated that Chernobyl, not his policy of perestroika, or economic reform, was the “real cause of the collapse of the Soviet Union five years later.” [The National Interest]
• “New NASA Satellite Is Watching Mexico City Sink In Real Time” • Mexico City has long been recognized as one of the fastest sinking sites in the world, but researchers didn’t have the ability to track the movement from space continuously until now. It is sinking at a rate of 0.5 inches (12.7 mm) each month, as water is removed from groundwater. [ABC News]
• “Solar Power Shields Farmers From Energy Crisis” • Times are bad for farmers in Bangladesh. Right when they needed a steady diesel supply to irrigate vast swathes of cropland – Boro paddies, seasonal vegetables, maize – the world entered what the head of the International Energy Agency has called “the biggest energy security threat in history.” [The Daily Star]
• “Meta Platforms Enters Solar-Power Pact” • Meta Platforms wants to get some of its solar power from space. The Facebook parent has agreed to purchase up to 1 GW of solar power from Overview Energy, a startup that aims to deploy satellites to provide power to customers on Earth’s surface. Overview plans for an in-space demonstration in 2028. [MSN]

For more news, please visit geoharvey – Daily News about Energy and Climate Change.

Headline News:

• “Start-up Produces Green Hydrogen from Just Sun and Water” • Green hydrogen could be a key to transforming our industries and energy systems, but so far it has been expensive, complex, and tied to grid infrastructure. Now photreon has developed a photoreactor panel that generates hydrogen directly from water and sunlight. [Renewable Energy Magazine]

Solar panels for generating hydrogen (KIT image)

• “SC Nuclear Plant Didn’t Maintain Key Safety Equipment For Years, Feds Say” • The VC Summer nuclear power plant north of Columbia failed for years to maintain a turbine-driven cooling pump, a key piece of safety equipment, that could help the plant continue running properly during an emergency, according to federal records and inspectors. [AOL.com]
• “Are Oil Companies Profiting From The Iran War? Experts Explain” • Some people assume oil companies have increased profits due to the Iran War, but earnings issued by some of the world’s largest oil companies in recent days presented a more complicated picture. While some had windfall profits, others reported surprising profit declines. [ABC News]
• “Africa’s Cellphone Towers Turn To Solar As Diesel Costs Surge” • Diesel, which powers the majority of Africa’s roughly 500,000 telecommunications towers, is more expensive and sometimes harder to secure in recent weeks as global fuel markets tightened following the conflict in Iran. A conversion to solar power is seen as urgent. [ABC News]
• “EPA Says Oil & Gas Operators Can Continue To Flare Past Long-Set Deadline” • The US EPA released guidance that will allow oil and gas operators to continue routine flaring, a harmful practice that unnecessarily releases dangerous pollutants into the air. Routine flaring was set to be phased out by May 7th after years of preparation. [CleanTechnica]

For more news, please visit geoharvey – Daily News about Energy and Climate Change.

Headline News:

• “In Colombia, 57 Nations Chart A Path To A Future Without Fossil Fuels” • The Guardian, unlike most mainstream media, covered the climate talks in some detail and reported that the participating governments were asked to develop national “road maps” that set forth how they will end the production and use of fossil fuels. France was one that did that. [CleanTechnica]

Conference (Transition Away Conference image)

• “Grid Connection Requested For US Fusion Power Plant” • Commonwealth Fusion Systems, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology spinout company, has applied for grid connection. CFS said the application is the first request from a grid-scale fusion power plant developer to a major regional transmission organisation. [World Nuclear News]
• “House, Senate Negotiators Reach Deal On Next-Generation Nuclear, Solar Net Metering” • Lawmakers in Concord reached a deal to lay the groundwork for next-generation nuclear power in New Hampshire. If small, modular reactors are to be an energy source, New Hampshire lawmakers said they don’t want state laws or officials to get in the way. [WMUR]
• “Rice Is A Greenhouse Gas Emitter” • Rice farming has long been a major source of methane emissions, a potent greenhouse gas formed when organic matter decomposes in flooded soils deprived of oxygen. Traditional rice paddies create exactly these conditions, making the crop one of the largest global agricultural contributors of methane. [CleanTechnica]
• “CPUC Protects Ratepayers, Rejects SoCalGas’ Attempt To Charge Customers For Hydrogen Pipeline” • The California PUC, in a written decision, denied a SoCalGas application that would have charged customers $266 million to fund the Angeles Link Project pipeline. SoCalGas can either fund the controversial project itself or drop it entirely. [CleanTechnica]

For more news, please visit geoharvey – Daily News about Energy and Climate Change.

Across the United States, rising energy prices, an ongoing affordability crisis, and compounding reliability and resiliency issues are driving demand for energy solutions that lower monthly bills and keep the lights on for households and small businesses.

Clean energy technologies can meet these needs by lowering energy use and costs. As a result, significant momentum has grown across the clean energy and community development financing ecosystem, mobilizing a range of financial institutions, including:

• Community lenders seeking technical assistance, capitalization funding, and capacity building opportunities to grow clean lending portfolios.
• Green banks seeking new partnerships, product deployments, and opportunities for scale
• Regional banks mapping opportunities to enhance Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) lending while integrating portfolio level investment opportunities for new asset classes.
• Philanthropic organizations seeking catalytic investment opportunities to drive community development objectives.

These organizations and others are building local strategies and piloting a range of clean community financing initiatives. Still, many community clean energy projects face common challenges in achieving scale as they often do not satisfy mainstream capital’s credit box.

Absent the federal funding that aimed to address these challenges, an opportunity has emerged to strengthen regional financing ecosystems that leverage individual organizations’ strengths and improve coordination across regional priorities, barriers, and opportunities. These ecosystems play a significant role in building a more resilient capital base and developing the place-based infrastructure to scale clean energy investment that delivers solutions with outsized economic and community impact.

RMI is exploring what a strong regional financing ecosystem needs in practice and how local circumstances and market realities may shape priorities, opportunities and partnerships. This article outlines eight lessons for strengthening regional clean community financing ecosystems, using Michigan as a case study.

Lessons from Michigan’s Clean Community Financing Ecosystem

RMI, in partnership with the Michigan Climate Investment Hub (the Hub), hosted a roundtable discussion in early 2026 to build a shared understanding of the current realities across Michigan’s clean community financing ecosystem. Discussions focused on priority market opportunities, partnerships, and identifying strategic next steps.

Across four market segments — single-family residential, multi-family residential, small business lending, and MUSH (Municipalities, Universities, Schools and Hospitals) — insights from Michigan demonstrate how other regions can accelerate clean energy opportunities in their communities.

Lesson 1 Institutional density attracts national capital, because capital flows where there is clarity, coordination, and credible partners.

Recommendations to other ecosystems:

• Make your ecosystem legible to external actors, providing clarity on who does what, where capital gaps exist, and how partners can plug in with clear entry points.
• Package opportunities for national intermediaries and investors.

The Michigan clean community financing ecosystem has strong institutional density and alignment, represented by diverse capital sources, actors, products, and offerings targeting emerging opportunities across the state. The ecosystem includes:

• Michigan Saves, the nation’s oldest green bank, which has facilitated over $790 million in energy improvements with a 30:1 private capital leverage ratio. It also hosts a vetted contractor network of over 1,500 partners.
• Two Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) coalitions — the Michigan CDFI Coalition and the Detroit CDFI Coalition — represent a significant share of Michigan’s more than 44 certified CDFIs. Together, they chair a joint climate committee that drives ambition and provides technical assistance. They use a four pillar strategy to fill local gaps: advocacy, collaboration, sharing and learning, and growth.
• A dedicated Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE) marketplace, administered through Lean and Green Michigan, that includes 62 local governments representing 85% of Michiganders. Since 2015, it has facilitated 89 projects and mobilized $315 million in private investment.
• Local impact capital providers, like The Kresge Foundation, play a key role in keeping clean energy projects moving forward. They provide catalytic capital, technical assistance, capacity building, market building and strong partnerships across Michigan’s CDFI network.
• Regional banks, such as Fifth Third, are expanding beyond CRA activity and increasing their role in clean community lending in Michigan. They leverage partnerships, intermediaries, and green banks, as well as innovative financing models such as equity equivalent investments and tax equity programs.

Strong coordination across state actors in Michigan has attracted national interest from organizations such as Inclusiv, Justice Climate Fund, and Local Initiatives Support Corporation, which have developed dedicated strategies and state-specific commitments to complement existing coordination efforts. When transparent market signals show how, where, and when national organizations can play a catalytic role in delivering value and creating opportunities, they respond.

Lesson 2 A financing ecosystem works best when coordination is treated as core infrastructure, not as a side activity. Recommendations to other ecosystems:

• Establish a formal coordination body or “hub.”
• Create shared priorities across market segments.
• Move beyond convening to build ongoing working groups that can put ideas into action.

One of Michigan’s strengths is that organizations are organically coordinating through bilateral engagement, as well as organized forums for strengthening collaboration. These forums have recently taken shape in partnership with the Michigan Climate Investment Hub (the Hub), established in 2025 as an anchor institution designed to attract and accelerate climate investments across the state.

“Michigan’s rich ecosystem of climate actors has indicated a clear appetite for increased collaboration and coordination in pursuit of speeding adoption and increasing access to clean energy and climate mitigation/adaptation resources. The Hub is channeling that demand and acting as a trusted convener and connector – working with in-state and national stakeholders to build lending capacity, attract and mobilize capital, and accelerate deployment to meet the goals laid forth in the MI Healthy Climate Plan.”

— Ben Dueweke
Director of the Michigan Climate Investment Hub

Organizations like the Michigan Environmental Council, Michigan Energy Innovative Business Council, and Michigan Energy Michigan Jobs Coalition are also bringing together businesses, utilities, policymakers, and financial institutions to develop policies, rate designs, and collaborative approaches to capitalize on clean energy economic growth and community development opportunities. Stakeholders across the state recognize a need to continue to align around shared priorities across market segments (more in Lesson 4) to put ideas into practice.

Lesson 3 Durable ecosystems are not dependent on any single funding source or administration, but state leadership can accelerate momentum.

Recommendations to other ecosystems:

• Use state or local support where available to build early momentum.
• Build self-sustaining capital flows and market-driven partnerships.
• Design for resilience to policy shifts.

Early state adoption of efficiency and energy waste reduction policies helped build momentum for clean energy in Michigan. That momentum is reinforced by strong state level initiatives, such as the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) Office of Climate and Energy’s MI Healthy Climate Plan, which provides technical assistance programs, multi-stakeholder coordination efforts, grant and funding challenges, and communications and promotional strategies.

While state-level programmatic support can be subject to administrative uncertainty, the level of interest across Michigan is suggestive of a long-term, systemic transition that is currently underway. This is displayed by EGLE’s Growing Green Lending Challenge, a dedicated blended-capital program designed to accelerate capacity building, foster partnerships, and drive innovation in Michigan’s clean energy lending ecosystem – which received over a dozen partnership proposals and ultimately announced four winners of the challenge.

Additionally, local jurisdictions have been charting a path forward in defining city leadership by integrating climate into long-term strategy planning for affordability, reliability, resilience and economic growth.

The city of Ann Arbor has developed the A2 Zero Carbon Neutrality Plan, a comprehensive climate partnership plan underpinned by commitments to 100% clean and renewable energy by 2030, a reduction in vehicle miles traveled, residential electrification, energy efficiency and resiliency.

Other communities like the city of Holland and Marquette County have partnered with their local utilities and EGLE to pilot the MiHER Program for residential and multifamily home energy efficiency and electrification upgrades in 2024, which has subsequently been rolled out statewide.

These kinds of initiatives provide early momentum for ecosystem actors to coordinate around and build self-sufficiency.

Lesson 4 Segment-specific strategies outperform one-size-fits-all approaches.

• Map gaps by market segment.
• Create segment-specific working groups.
• Design tailored products.

Different markets require distinct financing tools and coordination strategies.

Institutional density is important, but equally so are the products, tools, and solutions at work across the ecosystem. In Michigan, stakeholders are showing up across market segments with products and solutions designed to address specific barriers to accelerating the local clean community lending and investment opportunity. This suite of solutions includes:

• Origination partners focused on addressing affordability and financial access gaps.
• Risk mitigation tools such as loan loss reserves (LLRs), guarantees, and interest rate buy-downs facilitated by concessional capital.
• Bridge financing products offered through local financial institutions and green banks.
• Aggregation and warehousing to free up balance sheet capital for originators, encourage participation, and attract institutional investors.
• Capitalization funding providing a diverse pool of funding sources for local institutions to scale lending activity and capacity.
• Liquidity pathway support to address capital market access barriers through standardization support, balance sheet commitments, and secondary market development.

While there is strong shared commitment and optimism across the ecosystem in Michigan, organizations naturally focus on different market segments, barriers, and community-specific solutions aligned with their missions. This diversity can make broad discussions on clean community financing less effective for aligning around clear, market-specific priorities. While large forums are valuable for building momentum and awareness, more targeted, segment-specific working groups are often needed to drive practical collaboration and scalable solutions.

For example, the roundtable facilitated by RMI and the Hub surfaced small businesses as a market segment of shared interest across actors, representing a sizable investment opportunity and impact potential for clean energy lending. However, there remains a need for affordable financing products that can align timelines and project sizes with lender expectations and tenures, paired with technical assistance to help build clean technologies into capital expenditure plans. And even within the small business market, not all solutions look the same.

Lesson 5 Technical assistance is as important as capital to avoid under-deployment.

Recommendations to other ecosystems:

• Embed technical assistance into every program and fund as core infrastructure.
  • For lenders: provide underwriting and product design support.
  • For borrowers: offer project planning resources and pre-development resources.
  • For contractors: support technology adoption incentives and capacity.

Without technical support, capital alone will not deploy effectively.

In addition to financial products and services, a number of organizations are actively working to enhance technical assistance programs and coordination efforts across the ecosystem to help build capacity, coordinate priorities, and deploy fit-for-purpose solutions.

Lesson 6 Financing models must be designed around local economics and constraints.

Recommendations to other ecosystems:

• Start with market diagnostics on how energy markets, policy, workforce, and cultural aspects are impacting clean lending opportunity in the state.

Energy prices, workforce, and policy shape what financing models will succeed.

Michigan has some of the nation’s lowest gas prices, and highest electricity rates, presenting a challenge for incremental clean energy lending and associated electrification projects. These dynamics reduce the affordability of many residential clean energy technologies, as shown in RMI’s Green Upgrade Calculator and Market Readiness Map. These challenges are compounded by a limited supply of specialized workers, such as high-efficiency HVAC installers, compared to surrounding states.

While bundling certain technologies presents an economically viable pathway for lifetime savings, it also introduces higher upfront capital demand, financing costs, and misaligned loan tenures and payback periods. This creates additional barriers for many communities with limited access to affordable financing.

Lesson 7 Treat well-coordinated, strategically deployed concessionary capital as strategic infrastructure, and target risk absorption to create markets.

Recommendations to other ecosystems:

• Focus limited resources on portfolio-level de-risking.
• Create a state or regional strategy to deploy concessionary capital.
• Use concessionary capital to develop proof points, strengthen local capacity, and unlock private capital participation.

Targeted risk absorption can unlock private capital and build markets.

Local institutions directly addressing affordability (i.e. community lenders and green banks) need sufficient balance sheet capacity and flexibility. Loan loss reserves and guarantees can help create capacity and build a track record of performance that lowers risk, while simultaneously building portfolios of attractive assets. Still, the availability of concessionary capital is a limiting factor in scalability. Many places face a difficult reality in competing with peers for limited concessionary capital sources.

Our roundtable surfaced interest from participants in aligning around shared priorities and opportunities to coordinate the best use of this capital to create opportunity for all stakeholders and move beyond bespoke use cases to regional strategies and portfolio level approaches.

Lesson 8 Financing alone won’t drive adoption of clean energy — project pipelines are shaped upstream.

Recommendations to other ecosystems:

• Invest in architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) training and incentives, developer engagement, and contractor education programs to ensure clean energy benefits are designed into solutions.
• Reduce point-of-entry friction by creating more resources and capacity for project pre-development.

Project pipelines are shaped before financing enters the picture.

Understanding true sources of demand is critical in channeling efforts, building strategy, and engaging stakeholders where most effective. While much of the emphasis over the past few decades has been on the need for consumers to drive demand and capital allocators to provide workable financing solutions, in many sectors the real drivers of demand are more nuanced.

Stakeholders of the Michigan clean community financing ecosystem recognized that for a sector like multi-family residential, there is a clear lack of programmatic development across the AEC industry to integrate clean energy solutions into designs, specifications, and manufacturer relations. Absent investor requests, many designers, developers, and contractors are likely to default to business-as-usual where they have existing manufacturing and supply chain relationships. Roundtable participants pointed towards a role for subnational financing ecosystems to help catalyze coordination with AEC industry leaders, noting Passive House Pennsylvania as one model leading the way that could benefit Michigan.

Conclusion

There is more work to be done in Michigan, but the state is one of the leaders in building a collaborative and innovative ecosystem to support clean energy deployment and community development. As such, there is a lot to learn from their experience. Stakeholders across the policy and finance landscape in other states should take these lessons and apply them in their own contexts with the goal of developing resilient financing ecosystems that empower their communities to deploy clean and cost-saving technologies.

 

 

 

The post What Michigan’s Clean Community Financing Ecosystem can teach other US regions appeared first on RMI.

For the past year, “economic diversification” has been the magic phrase, as threats from the U.S., global political and economic instability, and climate volatility increase exponentially. It is perplexing, then, that B.C. appears to be quietly...

The post Tracking the Growth of Wind and Solar in Rural America appeared first on RMI.

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Blue Hill Weather Observatory (Jameslwoodward, CC BY-SA 3.0)

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The post The Heat Is On: Decarbonizing Industrial Heat in India and Southeast Asia appeared first on RMI.

Canada can maintain economic growth and continue oil and gas production while reaching a 2050 net zero goal by introducing stronger climate policies, according to the Pembina Institute’s analysis of new modelling from the Canada Energy Regulator (CER...

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Headline News:

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Dubai, UAE (Nick Fewings, Unsplash)

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