Qualified Energy Conservation Bonds

Cities, towns and counties around NYS just closed on submitting a round of issuance plans to NYSERDA for Qualified Energy Conservation Bonds.  QECBs were first authorized by Congress in October 2008, with a $800 million volume cap nationwide. Through the February 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Congress increased the QECB volume cap to $3.2 billion.  New York State has been provided an allocation of $202,200,000 through the program.

A broad array of “green” projects may be financed with QECBs, which are a type of tax credit bond.  Eligible project types include:

Capital expenditures incurred for purposes of

• Reducing energy consumption in publicly owned buildings by at least 20%
• Implementing green community programs
• Rural development involving the production of electricity from renewable energy resources
• Any facility eligible for the production tax credit under Section 45 of the Internal Revenue Code

Expenditures with respect to research facilities and research grants to support research in

• Development of cellulosic ethanol or nonfossil fuels
• Technologies for the capture and sequestration of carbon dioxide produced through the use of fossil fuels
• Increasing the efficiency of existing technologies for producing non-fossil fuels
• Automobile battery technologies and other technologies to reduce fossil fuel consumption in transportation
• Technologies to reduce energy use in buildings

Mass commuting facilities and related facilities that

• Reduce the consumption of energy
• Reduce pollution from vehicles used for mass commuting.

Demonstration projects designed to promote commercialization of

• Green building technology
• Conversion of agricultural waste for use in the production of fuel or otherwise
• Advanced battery manufacturing technologies
• Technologies to reduce peak use of electricity
• Technologies for the capture and sequestration of carbon dioxide emitted from combusting fossil fuels in order to produce electricity

Public education campaigns to promote energy efficiency

In New York, the program allocates NYSERDA, which is a public authority, to issue bonds and sell tax credits to bond or tax credit investors in order to finance energy conservation projects.  It is not a direct funding program that allocates public dollars.


For more information:
http://www.nyserda.org/qecb.asp