The following is a general overview and description of the Program and the eligibility of Borrowers and proposed measures and projects for funding through the Program.  More detailed information can be found in the “Program Technical Guide” which can be downloaded at the “Resources” section of this website.

General

The Division of Energy within Virginia’s Department of Mines, Minerals, and Energy (the “DMME” or the “Sponsor”), based on authority granted under Governor of Virginia’s Executive Order 36 (the “Executive Order”) , has established the VirginiaSAVES Green Community Program (“VirginiaSAVES” or the “Program”).  VirginiaSAVES (which stands for Sustainable, Verifiable Energy Savings) is a unique public/private partnership sponsored by the DMME to provide subsidized financing for energy efficiency, renewable energy, and alternative fuel loans for both private and local government properties and entities within the Commonwealth of Virginia.  DMME has initially capitalized the Program with $20 million of Qualified Energy Conservation Bonds (“QECBs”) allocated to the Program under the Executive Order (the “Initial Allocation”), with the ability to provide more QECB allocations as needed from additional QECBs available within the Commonwealth (the “Additional Allocations”)(the Initial Allocation and the Additional Allocations being the “QECB Allocations”).  The benefit of using the QECBs to fund the Program is that they offer a direct pay credit subsidy (the “Credit Payment”) from the U.S. Treasury to offset the interest rate on the financing, with this Credit Payment historically being between 2-3% and fixed over the life of the financing of up to 20 years or longer.

Eligible Borrowers

Eligible Borrowers under the Program will include local governmental, non-profit institutional and commercial and industrial businesses with sufficient credit to support financing through the Program.

ELIGIBLE Projects + Measures

Financing through VirginiaSAVES is available for projects and associated energy and qualified conservation related measures (the “Projects”) with as broad a scope as feasible given the definition of “Qualified Conservation Purposes” under the QECB Regulations. Funding from the Program is both for new construction as well as retrofits of existing properties and projects, but is not to be used for refinancing existing debt unless it is the take out of construction financing.The following are the examples of the types of energy conservation measures that can be financed through the Program (“Eligible Measures”):

• Energy-efficient fixtures and retrofits for buildings and industrial processes, which would include mechanical systems and components including HVAC, controls, steam and hot water upgrades, electrical systems and components including lighting and lighting controls, doors and windows, insulation, refrigeration upgrades and cogeneration (combined heat and power), as well as water conserving fixtures with demonstrable energy savings. 
• Renewable energy systems such as solar, biomass, geothermal, micro-hydroelectric, methane capture, combined heat and power co-generation technologies and/or fuel cell technologies.
• Deployment of alternative fueling infrastructure and vehicles or stationary power sources,  with examples being the fueling infrastructure and OEM vehicles and/or retrofit kits associated with converting existing diesel and/or gasoline fleets over to CNG or LNG or propane or biodiesel fuel.

Eligible Measures should demonstrate a reasonable basis to achieve a projected 10 year or better simple pay back based on project cost and projected energy cost savings or revenue. Exceptions to the 10 year payback requirement for any of the Eligible Measures set forth above may be considered on a case by case basis.