BY Michelle Corum, — 06/08/2021
WJCT, Jacksonville’s NPR station reports on how the Solar Energy Loan Fund looks to advance home improvement loans, and supports the creation of a National Climate Bank.
The article can be found here and was also picked up by the Heating News Journal.
Here is an excerpt that features SELF:
Duanne Andrade is the CEO of the nonprofit Solar Energy Loan Fund in Florida. She testified before that subcommittee about how green financing works. She said her organization provides financing to low- and moderate-income homeowners to first improve their home’s safety before doing any clean-energy upgrades.
“A home or a building that doesn’t have a sturdy roof and good impact windows, or hurricane shutters even, it’s pointless to talk about putting a solar array on it, right? There are basic things that need to be done.”
Andrade said the Solar Energy Loan Fund works with homeowners based on their ability to repay, not simply on their credit scores or income.
“Many folks do not have access to traditional financing, so they’re forced to suffer the consequences or to rely on predatory lenders,” Doug Coward, the bank’s executive director, said on a recent conference call hosted by the Coalition for Green Capital. “The level of demand for access to affordable financing is significant,” he added, “and that was before the current crisis that we’re in now.”