In December 2022, the Missouri Green Bank™ (MGB), in coordination with the Missouri Clean Energy District (MCED), will launch a statewide program called the “Energy Upgrade Assistance Program for Multifamily and Commercial Buildings” (EUAP). Missouri’s EUAP will provide free consulting services, including benchmarking assistance, to eligible owners of multifamily and commercial buildings. The central goal of the EUAP is to make it easier for property owners to upgrade their buildings with an energy improvement project that saves energy, saves money and reduces emissions.
For participating municipalities, one of the core benefits of the program is that it will create a sustainable pipeline of local energy improvement projects that can be funded by community banks, credit unions and CDFIs. We believe that a pipeline of projects is a necessary prerequisite to achieve at least five critical policy objectives:
- Local job creation;
- Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions;
- Mobilization of private capital;
- Inclusive deployment of capital in historically underserved communities; and
- Facilitation of wealth creation opportunities for minority and women-owned businesses
We mention these policy objectives specifically because they are among the stated policy goals of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Funding to support the implementation of the EUAP in Missouri is made possible by these two federal laws.
How to Participate
Municipalities can participate in the EUAP in two ways. The simplest way is to allocate a portion of the municipality’s formula EECBG funding to the program. EECBG allocation amounts will be announced by the US Department of Energy in November 2022. The second way to support the implementation of the EUAP is to send MCED a letter of support as we pursue multiple competitive federal grant opportunities. You can download a template support letter here. Please sign the letter of support, send back to us at jharris@mced.mo.gov for inclusion in our submission to the EPA.
Program Benefits
Participating municipalities will enjoy the following benefits:
- Free benchmarking assistance* for owners of multifamily and commercial buildings, in such a way that annual benchmarking can happen nearly automatically in future years;
- Data transparency to ensure that benchmarking data leads to action in the marketplace;
- Virtual energy assessments and proposals for property owners on the upgrade(s) that make sense for their building;
- Subsidized energy audits for qualifying property owners (if funded by the municipality or a federal grant);
- Concierge services for local banks, credit unions, CDFIs so that they can offer Commercial PACE (C-PACE) financing to property owners, in addition to the traditional financial products they already offer, and
- Standardized reports on program impacts to comply with US Department of Energy reporting requirements.
Program Partners – In formation
- Allectrify
- SRADCO Engineers
- VeriWatt
- Arrowpoint
If you have any questions about the Energy Upgrade Assistance Program for Multifamily and Commercial Buildings, please contact John Harris at MCED.
* State or local benchmarking policy is not required to participate in the EUAP, but it can increase the efficacy of the program. We would be happy to provide template benchmarking policy to interested municipalities.
