Hartford Business Journal

38 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | NOVEMBER 21, 2022 FOCUS: CLEAN ENERGY aged by past investor demand for Green Liberty Bonds — the Green Bank launched a crowdfunding campaign with the sale of Green Liberty Notes, which provide a fixed rate of return with a one-year maturity and are available for a $100 minimum investment. Offered quarterly, Green Bank has cumulatively raised more than $800,000 through its first four Liberty Note offerings, including selling out its last two offerings. Funds raised through the Green Liberty Notes support Connecticut's Small Business Energy Advantage program, which provides loans for energy efficient upgrades to commercial and industrial customers of Connecticut's electrical utility companies, Eversource and United Illuminating. New federal dollars Ted Novicki, manager of smart grid innovation programs for Avangrid, United Illuminating's parent company, said the move to clean energy also creates demand for new innovation to make the state's power grid more dynamic and resilient. "We have all these disruptive technologies becoming more prevalent with solar adoption and electric vehicles," Novicki said. PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED "Our electric grid was originally designed as a one-way power flow, but now there's a lot of bidirectional (energy) flow as (solar-powered) homes are either consuming (elec- tricity) or pushing it back on the grid." He said green innovations that address challenges like energy storage and grid modernization to increase efficiency are not only good environmental policy, but sound economic development, too. Green Bank's 2021 annual report noted that the organization directly or indirectly supported more than 25,000 jobs in the state and helped generate more than $107 million in tax revenue. And for every $1 in public funds Connecticut Green Bank invested, it attracted $7.40, it said. And with the climate-related provi- sions in the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), an additional $370 billion will be available for energy security and climate change programs over the next decade, including a $27 billion investment to fund a National Green Bank. In Connecticut, $100 million of those federal funds will be invested to support startups and new green technologies through Connecticut's ClimateTech Fund, managed by Connecticut Innovations. "We would like these innovative companies to establish a headquar- ters here and have a Connecticut growth plan," said Konstantine Drakonakis, fund manager of CI's ClimateTech Fund. "Strong statewide collaboration and programs to help startups pilot and scale innovations make Connecticut an attractive location for aspiring green entrepreneurs." And the future is trending greener, with the global renewable energy market expected to increase annually by 8.4% to nearly $2 trillion by 2030. And since Connecticut launched the country's first Green Bank over a decade ago, multiple states now house them and 22 states are looking to create them. Konstantine Drakonakis Ted Novicki Spinnaker Real Estate Partners' SoNo Ice House in Norwalk added rooftop solar arrays using financing from Connecticut Green Bank's C-PACE program.

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