LANSING, Mich. (WZMQ) – Michigan’s Department for Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy has launched a new Climate Investment Accelerator. The project was created to help get federal dollars into the pockets of people looking to start green energy projects.
As the country moves forward with its clean energy plan, state and federal dollars have been rolled out for everything from energy-efficient home upgrades to large-scale green energy projects.
Michigan’s chief climate officer, Cory Connolly explained the new climate investment accelerator was created to help take advantage of money originally from the federal Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF). The GGRF is $27 billion that was granted to eight different organizations across the country to make clean energy technology more accessible.
“Public funding can only go so far. We need private investment. We need to crowd in the private market.” Connolly said. “We put together the Michigan Climate Investment Accelerator to help make sure that michigan is prepared to take advantage of that to recruit lenders and nonprofits to michigan to invest here.”
The accelerator works in two parts: The hub, and the fund. The hub is a shared office and event space in Detroit that works to incentivize those eight organizations to invest in Michigan. The fund works to match federal dollars when the institutions receive grants from one of the eight larger organizations for green energy lending.
The state’s energy goals include community and household clean and green energy upgrades. The accelerator works with financial institutions, like credit unions and Community Development Financial institutions, to make sure communities have access to the resources to make those upgrades.
“We’ve got over 186 credit unions and we’ve got over 50 CDFI’s, they already have tons of relationships. This is getting them the capacity to start offering green lending to more folks.” Connolly said. “It’s somewhat inevitable that this transition is happening like private markets are moving into clean energy and climate solutions. We just need them to go fast enough to meet the crisis.”
Connolly said the accelerator works with private sector financial institutions to make sure communities have access to the resources to kick-start clean energy transitions. As the state starts to buckle down in its fight to combat climate change, the hope is to channel private sector resources to speed up state and federal goals.
You can find more information about the accelerator and other climate initiatives on the way at michign.gov/climate.
