Green Banks: Transforming Clean Energy Finance in Pennsylvania

The Union of Concerned Scientists analyzes how a hypothetical Pennsylvania green bank, with an initial $135 million capitalization, could leverage $4.2 billion in total investment by 2030. This initiative would support 780 MW of wind and solar capacity, save $375 million annually on electricity bills, and reduce CO2 emissions by 4.8 million tons per year, contributing 11% of the state's required reductions under the Clean Power Plan.

• A hypothetical Pennsylvania green bank with an initial public capitalization of $135 million could leverage a total of $4.2 billion in renewable energy and energy efficiency investments over 15 years, with $3.7 billion coming from the private sector.
• By 2030, the proposed green bank could facilitate the deployment of 780 MW of new wind and solar power capacity and generate or save 5,300 GWh of electricity, which represents more than 2 percent of Pennsylvania's 2013 electricity sales.
• The investments in energy efficiency enabled by a green bank are estimated to save Pennsylvania homes and businesses $375 million on annual electricity bills by 2030.
• The green bank could reduce power-sector carbon dioxide emissions by over 4.8 million tons annually by 2030, which would account for 11 percent of the total emissions reduction Pennsylvania needs to meet Clean Power Plan requirements.
• Pennsylvania currently utilizes several clean energy financing tools that a central green bank could expand or supplement, including the Keystone HELP energy-efficiency loan program and the Green Energy Loan Fund for commercial property retrofits.
• The Pennsylvania Energy Development Authority is identified as a potential entity that could be reoriented to serve as the state's green bank, similar to how the New Jersey Economic Development Authority hosts the Energy Resilience Bank.

APA

Union of Concerned Scientists (2015). Green Banks: Transforming Clean Energy Finance in Pennsylvania. https://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/attach/2015/11/pennsylvania-green-banks-fact-sheet.pdf

Chicago

Union of Concerned Scientists. Green Banks: Transforming Clean Energy Finance in Pennsylvania. 2015. https://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/attach/2015/11/pennsylvania-green-banks-fact-sheet.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Union of Concerned Scientists |title=Green Banks: Transforming Clean Energy Finance in Pennsylvania |date=November 2015 |url=https://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/attach/2015/11/pennsylvania-green-banks-fact-sheet.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{unionofconcernedscientists2015green, author = {{Union of Concerned Scientists}}, title = {{Green Banks: Transforming Clean Energy Finance in Pennsylvania}}, institution = {Union of Concerned Scientists}, year = {2015}, month = nov, url = {https://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/attach/2015/11/pennsylvania-green-banks-fact-sheet.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }