It’s a situation we come across all the time: 1) Altura is brought in to provide retro-commissioning (RCx) or an audit for a building/portfolio, 2) we uncover a host of energy efficiency measures – some low cost/no cost, some requiring moderate to large capital expenditures, 3) we tackle the low hanging fruit (low cost/no cost measures), 4) we find our clients eager to implement a list of more significant improvements, but they don’t have budget available to finance the improvements.
Many more projects never even get to this point. Projects don’t make it to the RCx or audit stage, even when owners and facility managers realize there are likely savings to be realized. This usually happens because facility staff don’t know where to start and/or capital simply isn’t available to even begin a project.
This is a frustrating dilemma because we find our clients are often eager to pursue improvement projects and reap all the benefits (energy and cost savings, improved occupant comfort, longer equipment life, reduced carbon footprint, etc.), but they deadlocked by the financing hurdle. More frustrating still is that most all projects have a projected simple payback of less than 3-4 years, with many forecasting a payback period of less than a year!
In response to this challenge, Altura has recently signed on with Noesis, an energy efficiency financing partner, to offer our clients creative financing solutions which require no money down and provide positive cash flow on day one. Noesis has developed a business model specifically geared towards providing financing options for energy efficiency projects. Their model is simple – they work with firms like Altura to connect them with our clients who have projects our engineers have identified as offering significant energy/cost savings potential. The savings from the initiative fund the project, and once the project is paid back our clients reap the rest of the savings.
- Contact us to receive a case study for an energy efficiency finance project
This graphic is from an actual project proposal – in this example our client was looking at financing a $430,000 bundle of energy efficiency improvements which would yield annual average savings of nearly $200,000 for a project life of 15 years, for a total lifecycle savings of more than $2.4 million. The project offered our client positive monthly cash flow from day 1, with no money out of pocket. This is just one example, but the profiles of projects cover the full spectrum of project types and sizes – from the very small up to the very large.
I am very excited about this, because it represents a win-win situation in the purest sense:
Win for our clients: Our clients are able to implement more projects, and get them done faster. They are able to achieve significant long-term cost savings and energy savings with little or no money out of pocket.
Win for Altura: We are enabled to work with our clients to do what we do best: identify and implement energy efficiency improvements. This means we’re able to go well-beyond the “low hanging fruit” and achieve deep and persistent energy savings across entire portfolios.
Win for Noesis: They are able to grow their investment portfolio and offer more funding to an ever-growing number of energy efficiency projects nationwide.
Check out our profile on Noesis’ website, and think about the types of projects you could pursue if you had a solution to the financing challenge. Please give us a call at 877-572-6590 to talk about your projects.
We look forward to hearing from you!
-Jim
