Participating Community Lenders will provide loans and investments to low carbon projects and businesses in their service area, to include:

• Businesses in the clean energy sector such as solar installers, battery manufacturers, building technology / energy efficiency companies, clean energy generation, environmental evaluation and monitoring, …
• Built environment projects that include energy efficiency features and renewable energy generation for commercial and industrial buildings, schools, community facilities (including health facilities), affordable housing, and other low carbon emission buildings.
• Distributed energy generation and storage to include community solar generation, residential rooftop solar, battery storage and other zero emission projects such as wind and geothermal.
• Clean transportation projects such as: business fleet electrification; EV charging infrastructure; zero emission school buses, public van pools and ride sharing, and other zero emission transportation projects suitable for rural communities.

Technical Assistance Hubs will be created for the provision of specialized services to projects and participating communities, helping to increase the demand for – and accelerate the impact of – Green Bank financings.  These Hubs will provide specialized services for the transaction types described above, as well as needed workforce development supports to meet the demand for new energy economy jobs, and community engagement activities to ensure financed projects address local priorities.   Service providers may include the above financing partners, as appropriate, as well as Community Development Corporations, non-profit development organizations, regional educational institutions (universities and community colleges), for profit and non-profit national technical assistance providers (examples: US Green Building Council, professional accounting firms, …), public sector technical assistance providers (MEP programs, …), Local Development Districts, unions (and related apprenticeship programming), utilities including Rural Electric Coops and others.

Technical Assistance partners will be contracted to provide support in their respective target market, which may be defined by geography or the type of assistance requested.

Each financing partner will receive a technical assistance award of 10% of their capitalization financing to support these activities.  It is anticipated that over 80 technical assistance partners will be contracted to provide services, which may include:

Development Services

• Business plan / business case development.
• Market studies / market research.
• Engineering and Design
• Financial structuring / modeling, pro forma preparation.
• Access to new IRA energy tax credits.
• Clean energy / energy efficiency grant applications.
• Other activities tbd.

Community Services

• Workforce Development – workforce training and job readiness.
• Community Engagement activities – ensuring the participation of low income communities in project development, identification, and prioritization.
• Other activities tbd.

Financial products will be designed to accelerate the financing of low carbon projects in underserved rural communities and may include:

• Debt – senior and subordinate
• Forgivable debt
• Unsecured tax credit bridge financing
• New Markets Tax Credit leverage debt
• On-bill financing credit facilities
• Aggregation / Warehousing facilities – for purchase of smaller credits with potential resale to secondary market
• Refinancing products
• Structured Finance Solutions
• Lease financing
• Equity Investments
• Securitization / packaging for secondary market and perm financing access – Loan Loss Reserves, interest rate buy-downs.

The Green Bank for Rural America will target the 13-state region of Appalachia, Coal and Power Plant Communities nationally, and other underserved rural areas such as Persistent Poverty Counties, NMTC Low Income Communities, Appalachian Regional Commission Distressed Counties, and other areas.  Communities which receive investment from EPA GGRF funding will meet the Low-Income and Disadvantaged Communities definitions as presented in the EPA GGRF program, which are identified by census tract in the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST) prepared by the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

ACC will operate a streamlined Green Bank, relying on financing partners for transaction sourcing, origination, servicing and portfolio management, while maintaining an efficient internal staffing structure.  Technical Assistance will be provided on contract by partners.   The Green Bank for Rural America will be structured to be a self-sustaining entity, encouraging technical assistance partners to charge fee-for-service / success fees if appropriate, and to relend / redeploy loan principal repayments for promising opportunities.  The Green Bank will oversee and evaluate all financing and technical assistance activities and ensure activities prioritize community engagement.  The Green Bank will track economic development impacts and carbon avoidance resulting from investments, will review activities for legal and grant compliance, and undertake financial and risk management assessment.

The Green Bank for Appalachia will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of ACC and will utilize an Advisory Board to provide guidance and oversight.  The Bank’s Advisory Board includes regional and national partners with relevant expertise in banking, development finance, green financing, community and economic development, business technical assistance, workforce development, union representation, and clean energy development.

[1]Interagency Working Group on Coal and Power Plant Communities, White House, April 2021