Renewable energy, sustainable financing

To tackle the whop­ping $332,328 price tag for his planned solar panel instal­la­tions at the Oakcrest, his Forest Hills prop­erty, Eric Bluestone devised a plan: To take advan­tage of the finan­cial incen­tives that can slash those initial costs tremen­dously, and then secure a lender who could provide a loan to cover the rest. The bottom line, he said, is to finance tech­nology that leads to a reli­able return on invest­ments, which in his case, is lower-cost renew­able energy. 

Once Bluestone real­ized that his previous financing partner NYCEEC was also offering loans to afford renew­able energy upgrades, he real­ized he had an oppor­tu­nity to use NYCEEC’s financing mech­a­nisms for energy effi­ciency projects in his existing port­folio, not just new builds. 

“This is our first oppor­tu­nity to work with them on that stage,” Bluestone said. 

The financing part­ner­ship, Bluestone said, has been rela­tively easy — and working with experts knowl­edge­able in renew­able energy systems and the nuances of working with multiple city agen­cies is a perk that tradi­tional banking lenders aren’t offering. 

Bluestone’s partner, Ira Lichtiger, explained that the NYCEEC team was ​“more hands-on than the folks we typi­cally have used for financing this kind of thing, because they have people who look at the plans and under­stand the effi­cien­cies and addi­tional layers of the project.” 

As the first indi­vidual rental building NYCEEC has ever given a loan to for a solar instal­la­tion, the Oakcrest presented some unique financing challenges. 

Andrew Chintz, a finance specialist at NYC Accelerator, a city-funded resource hub that helps owners stream­line the process of finding and financing options for energy effi­ciency upgrades, explains that building owners, espe­cially those with vacant units, might struggle to have the cash flow needed to afford upfront costs. There are more rental units vacant in New York City than condo and co-op units. 

The groups that Bluestone relied on for advice and assis­tance with its solar panel instal­la­tion — NYC Accelerator and NYCEEC — are part of a growing network of resources to help prop­erty owners launch renew­able energy projects. There are also some federal sources of funding, and state sources like New York’s Green Bank.

Simon Mugo, a program manager at NYC Accelerator, points out that geograph­i­cally speaking, there are no build­ings or regions in the city that are by rule harder to decar­bonize — many build­ings would require the same type of equip­ment and permit­ting. The bigger issue often simply comes down to know-how: In areas with smaller build­ings typi­cally managed by mom-and-pop owners, ​“It’s just not as easy to reach them,” Mugo said, adding that these owners often have fewer resources, like prop­erty managers, to help with communication.

Yet once building owners get connected with the right resources to guide their decar­boniza­tion project, it’s well worth the effort, Eric Bluestone told Skylight. NYCEEC was able to provide the Bluestone Organization with a loan that it will pay back over a period of 10 years, a financing offer that ​“made sense,” Bluestone says. Meanwhile, the Oakcrest prop­erty has had solar panels installed for over a year now, and the group already reports more than $11,000 saved in utility bills so far.