Flagship · Clean Energy
EnergyCA: Storage, efficiency, and resilience, financed on the agency's timeline.
EnergyCA is tax-exempt financing for battery storage, efficiency upgrades, and on-site resilience at any California public agency, with solar and EV charging where they fit. State and utility incentives, and federal credits where still available, are layered into the financing rather than fronted by the general fund.
The Opportunity
Energy is a recurring cost and an operating risk. Fixing it takes capital up front.
Aging HVAC, lighting, and controls cost an agency money every month they stay in service, and outages and public safety power shutoffs put water systems, emergency services, and shelters at risk. The projects that address both, efficiency retrofits, battery storage, and microgrids that keep a site running when the grid does not, pay back over years but cost money now. State and utility incentives, and federal credits where still available, typically arrive after the project is in service. EnergyCA provides capital at execution, layers in the incentives the project qualifies for, and carries the compliance that follows.
What EnergyCA Finances
- Battery storage and backup power
- HVAC replacement and building electrification
- Lighting, controls, and envelope efficiency
- Microgrids and on-site resilience for critical facilities
- Solar generation paired with storage
- EV charging and fleet electrification
How It Works
Our approach
EnergyCA builds the issuance around the project's full funding picture. We size tax-exempt capital to the project timeline, identify the state and utility incentives and the federal credits, where still available, that the project may qualify for, and set up the documentation those programs depend on, then administer the post-issuance compliance for the life of the financing. Detailed savings and cash-flow modeling is available as an optional service the agency elects, billed separately.
Capital at execution. Work begins when the agency is ready, not when an incentive clears.
Resilience where it matters: storage and on-site generation sized to keep critical facilities operating through outages and shutoffs.
Incentives identified before the financing is sized: state and utility programs, and federal credits where still available, documented through receipt.
The Mechanics
How storage, efficiency, and resilience get financed.
Cut the recurring cost
Efficiency retrofits, HVAC, and controls reduce what the agency spends on energy every month, and those savings can help carry the debt service.
Keep critical sites running
Battery storage and microgrids keep water systems, emergency services, and community facilities operating through outages and public safety power shutoffs.
Document the incentives
State and utility programs, and federal credits where still available, are identified and documented at the start, because an incentive without the records is an incentive at risk.
Eligibility
Who qualifies, and what can be financed.
Eligible Borrowers
- Cities and counties
- Special districts: water, sanitation, fire, parks
- Joint powers authorities and regional agencies
- School and community college districts
- Other California public agencies
What Can Be Financed
- Battery storage and backup power
- Efficiency retrofits
- HVAC and electrification
- Microgrids and resilience
- Solar and EV charging
The Process
From first call to closing
Scoping call
A no-cost consultation on the project, the facilities involved, and the incentives already pursued.
Incentive review
The state, utility, and federal programs the project may qualify for are identified before the financing is sized. Detailed modeling is an optional service, billed separately.
Filings and documentation
Incentive applications, and any federal credit election where still available, set up alongside the financing.
Issuance and closing
Board resolution, documents, and closing.
Compliance and receipts
Incentives received; compliance administered for the life of the financing.
Questions
The questions boards ask first.
Battery storage, backup generation, microgrids, and the controls that tie them together, sized to keep critical facilities such as water and wastewater plants, fire stations, and emergency shelters operating when the grid is down.
Where federal clean-energy credits are still available for a project, a tax-exempt agency can generally receive them as a cash payment through elective pay rather than as an offset against tax. Availability depends on the technology, the timing, and current federal law, so it is confirmed project by project with your counsel.
The financing covers project cost without depending on any single incentive. If a layer is reduced, the residual rolls into the long-term financing on the terms the bonds were sized for.
Read the full guide →A longer, print-ready guide to EnergyCA for your team and board.
See whether EnergyCA fits your agency.
Tell us about the project and timeline. We will return a preliminary read on structure and eligibility, at no cost.