Details on how private finance can participate in a federal $14 billion National Clean Investment Fund to boost affordable clean technology projects were released Friday by the Environmental Protection Agency.
In the notice of funding opportunities in the National Clean Investment Fund, the EPA said it will award grants to two-or-three national non-profit financing entities "to create national clean financing institutions capable of partnering with the private sector to provide accessible, affordable financing for tens of thousands of clean technology projects nationwide."
The competition is open until Oct. 12, with selections to be announced in March 2024.
The National Clean Investment Fund, created in the Inflation Reduction Act along with the $6 billion Clean Communities Investment Accelerator program, focuses on the low-carbon transition in low-income communities. Competitions for the two programs were announced Friday by Vice President Kamala Harris and EPA Administrator Michael Regan at a Baltimore event.
The competitions are part of EPA's $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund program, which includes a $7 billion solar competition to spur adoption of clean distributed solar energy.
One group competing for the NCIF mandate is Climate United, a consortium of non-profit firms investing in clean energy and disadvantaged communities that is made up of Calvert Impact, the Community Preservation Corp. and non-profit Self-Help.
The consortium continues to add partners, according to Beth Bafford, vice president for syndications and strategy at Calvert Impact.
"The investment from the federal government in this shape and form is pretty unprecedented. This federal investment really supercharges the amount of investment we can do," Ms. Bafford said in an interview.
The National Clean Investment Fund requires mobilization of private capital, which Ms. Bafford predicts will happen. "We certainly expect there will be institutional products that will come from this work. It will allow us to put larger scale opportunities in the marketplace," she said.
