NY Green Bank awards $4 million to a downstate firm with projects in CNY

The NY Green Bank has awarded a Brooklyn–based company $4 million in revolving construction loans for wind-energy projects throughout Central and Western New York.

The award for United Wind Inc. also involves a partnership with U.S. Bank, the office of Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a news release issued Wednesday.

NY Green Bank is a division of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.

It is described as a “core” initiative of the Cuomo’s “Reforming the Energy Vision” plan.

The $4 million award is among three NY Green Bank deals totaling $49 million that Cuomo’s office announced in the news release.

NY Green Bank is also leveraging up to $178 million in additional private capital from private-sector partners and financial institutions.

With its award, United Wind has plans to install more than 160 distributed wind-energy projects for residential, commercial, and agricultural customers throughout Central and Western New York, Cuomo’s office said.

Other awards

In addition to the United Wind funding, Long Island–based Level Solar will use a $25 million award for a new warehouse line of credit.

The company says it designs and installs systems for residential homes at no cost to the consumer.

With funding from NY Green Bank and U.S. Bank, Level Solar will be able to provide solar installations for up to 6,000 New Yorkers, according to Cuomo’s office.

NY Green Bank also awarded Oakland, California–based Renew Financial $20 million, along with a $50 million warehouse line of credit from Citi (NYSE: C) to expand its consumer-lending program.

The program, ReHome New York, is a public-private partnership that will offer up to 12,000 New York homeowners as much as $20,000 in low-cost financing for clean-energy and energy-efficiency improvements to their homes.

The state expects these transactions to reduce lifetime greenhouse-gas emissions in New York by up to 886,000 metric tons, “which is equivalent to taking more than 14,000 cars off the road annually for at least 10 years,” according to Cuomo’s office.

NY Green Bank, a $1 billion state-sponsored financial entity, is designed to accelerate clean-energy growth in New York through private-sector partnerships that “help create a self-sustaining marketplace and reduce the need for future government support.”

To date, NY Green Bank has received proposals for more than $850 million of its capital, which would result in about $3.5 billion in total investments in New York’s clean-energy markets, according to Cuomo’s office.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com