CGC’s Mission

3. CGC’s Mission

6. Setting the stage… The cost of inaction is enormous

10. Emissions are currently rising faster than the worst case scenarios predicted in 2007 by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

11. The United States can still play a global leadership role The U.S. has more solar resources than the current leading markets

12. The U.S. is second to China in terms of new investment in clean energy; increasing investment would make the U.S. much more competitive

15. Problem to solve: Today, the market for clean energy in the U.S. is small, slow-growing and unreliable Without a federal Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) or other incentives, demand for clean or renewable energy is a small fraction of the total market Renewable energy sources in 2009 were only 8% of the total energy generated in the U.S. and by 2035 are only expected to rise 13% So, we need to make a significant investment in order to transition off of the increasingly-expensive and nearly-extinct fossil fuel sources and reach our goal of 35% renewables by 2020

16. Meanwhile, the total electricity demand in the U.S. is flat or has very low growth due to a number of factors:

17. These factors combined indicate that there will be virtually no new demand for energy in the U.S. for the foreseeable future. Thus, we can not expect that demand for clean energy will increase, as the market will not just expand naturally.

18. The market for renewable electricity is unreliable

20. Valleys of Death

23. Conclusion: we can and must create a large, fast-growing and reliable demand for clean energy in the U.S.

24. Low-cost financing expands the market for clean energy without violating any of the previously-stated parameters

25. Low-cost, long-term loans will create substantial additional solar investments in at least 14 states, and substantial additional wind investments in at least 15 states, expanding the geographical potential for solar and wind without raising electricity prices

26. We can create faster growth of the clean energy market with financial techniques • Couple RES – making carbon-intensive generation more expensive – with lower cost for clean energy through an Energy Independence Trust (EIT) • Create EIT which can be passed into law without any congressional appropriation. EIT will: • Prompt private sector investments • Allow equity investors to fund more projects • Reduce delivered price of wind projects 15-20% • Reduce delivered price of solar projects 20-25%

30. Electric vehicles: transport could be fundamentally altered – quickly – with increased financing We can create new demand by both drawing in new investors and creating more opportunities to invest

32. The green bank approach to creating market stability • Repurposing existing state funds into a new entity or within an existing financing authority so they are more easily leveraged and matched with private funds from investors • Push programs away from rebates, grants, loan write-downs and subsidies and into revolving loan programs • Green banks could provide 100% up-front financing, tie repayment to energy savings, and replace interest rate buy-downs

35. State Renewable Electricity Standards Many states are transitioning away from fossil fuels via renewable electricity standards

36. Renewable energy potential is enormous

38. Conclusion: We can and must create a large, fast-growing and reliable demand for clean energy in the U.S. The costs of renewable energy investments are coming down and with low-cost financing we can make them come down faster. In order to reach the President’s goal of 80% clean electricity by 2035 we need to act now