Inclusiv Awarded $1.87 Billion To Help Create Clean Energy Funding Network
The Environmental Protection Agency announced the awards Thursday
Inclusiv, the network of credit unions that are Community Development Financial Institutions, has been awarded $1.87 billion by the Environmental Protection Agency to help create a national financing network for clean energy projects, EPA officials announced Thursday.
Inclusiv was one of five groups awarded a total of $6 billion under the Clean Communities Investment Fund Accelerator program created by the Inflation Reduction Act.
“Under the $6 billion Clean Communities Investment Accelerator, the five selected applicants will establish hubs that provide funding and technical assistance to community lenders working in low-income and disadvantaged communities, providing an immediate pathway to deploy projects in those communities while also building capacity of hundreds of community lenders to finance projects for years,” EPA officials said.
“We are thrilled that CCIA will enable us to direct grants and assistance to a network of high-impact, community-owned and governed credit unions and cooperativas with deep roots in low-income and disadvantaged communities,” Inclusiv President/CEO Cathleen Mahon said. Cooperativas are credit unions chartered by the Puerto Rican government.
Inclusiv explained its plans as part of its application submitted to the EPA. The group said that its network of credit unions will make loans to clean energy projects in low-income and disadvantaged communities.
“Inclusiv is uniquely positioned as a hub nonprofit to enable this vast network of community lenders to finance clean technology projects in building retrofits, transportation, and distributed energy,” Inclusiv said. “With CCIA, Inclusiv will deploy capital to scale credit union clean energy lending, making green projects accessible in low-income and disadvantaged communities for the first time.”
Inclusiv officials said they intend to build local and national markets for environmentally sound lending through its Solar and Green Lending training and assistance program. They also said that Inclusiv will help connect community lenders to minority-owned clean energy businesses.