• About
  • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Contact
Celebrating our 1,000th edition. The climate news you need
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  FEATURED
EXCLUSIVE: Bid to Revive Doomed Nova Scotia LNG Project Collides with Germany’s Net-Zero Plans May 16, 2022
3,800 Residents Ordered to Evacuate after Flooding in Hay River, NWT May 16, 2022
India Halts Wheat Exports to Protect Food Security as Southeast Asia Faces Deadly Heat Wave May 16, 2022
195 ‘Carbon Bombs’ Show Fossils On Track to Shatter 1.5° Target May 12, 2022
More Fossil Fuel Burning Will Drive Super-Cyclones, Farmland Loss May 12, 2022
Next
Prev
Home Demand & Distribution Batteries / Storage

Buyout by Vancity Brings New Financial Clout to Green Bond Provider CoPower

November 11, 2019
Reading time: 2 minutes

Energy, Battery Breakthroughs Mean an ‘Ill Wind’ for Coal+CCS

hpgruesen/ Pixabay

1
SHARES
 

Vancity Community Investment Bank has announced plans to acquire CoPower Inc., a Toronto-based green financing platform that offers green bonds to investors with as little as C$5,000 to spend.

The deal gives CoPower access to a pool of a half-million potential customers through one of the country’s biggest credit unions, National Observer reports, while helping Vancity expand its sustainable financing operations.

“When the opportunity came up to acquire (CoPower), we thought, ‘Wow, we get the instant team, we get the brand recognition, we get the great work they’ve done on the bond platform.’ It fits within the sphere of the things that we are looking to do in the bank,” VCIB CEO Jay-Ann Gilfoy told Observer. “It just seemed like a natural sort of extension of what we were already doing.”

“Vancity is similarly focused on using finance to solve big problems,” said CoPower co-founder David Berliner. “We’ll be able to do a lot more, faster.”

While CoPower has raised and invested about $30 million across more than 1,100 projects, Observer notes that Vancity has $27.4 billion in total assets or assets under management.

In its five years of operation, Observer says CoPower has focused its retail green bonds on “community-scale projects” involving solar panels, heat pumps, energy-efficient retrofits to residential and commercial properties, and energy storage, helping project developers to “ offset significant upfront equipment, installation, and other costs. The company’s investment is paid off over time as it pockets some or all of the initial cost savings.”

That kind of decentralized project “is increasingly the best bang for our buck,” Berliner said. “Instead of having one big power plant far away, sending electrons to a city, having solar and wind and geothermal and batteries integrated into the fabric of our community is where more investment dollars are going.”

The announcement “comes at a pivotal time, with proven technologies to help buildings and communities reduce their energy consumption or generate their own feed power in the market—but with limited financing to accelerate their deployment,” Observer adds. “Gilfoy said part of the problem is that banks are almost exclusively geared to use money to create more money.”

“Our goal is actually to make sure that things are starting to shift and change in the world that make it a better place to live,” she said. “Our goal, clear and simple, is to get money that doesn’t normally flow into where it’s needed.”

Observer goes into detail on the projects CoPower has funded to date and the new investments it may now be able to undertake.



in Batteries / Storage, Canada, Cities & Communities, Clean Electricity Grid, Community Climate Finance, Demand & Efficiency, Off-Grid, Solar, Wind

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

Fossils Fret as McKenna Sends Mammoth LNG Project to Cabinet Review
Energy Politics

EXCLUSIVE: Bid to Revive Doomed Nova Scotia LNG Project Collides with Germany’s Net-Zero Plans

May 16, 2022
250
3,800 Residents Ordered to Evacuate after Flooding in Hay River, NWT
Severe Storms & Flooding

3,800 Residents Ordered to Evacuate after Flooding in Hay River, NWT

May 16, 2022
66
Analysts Search for Details as UK Pledges 78% Carbon Cut by 2035
Auto & Alternative Vehicles

Ontario Pushes EV Charging, Leaves Out Vehicle Incentives in Run-Up to June Vote

May 16, 2022
72

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

Fossils Fret as McKenna Sends Mammoth LNG Project to Cabinet Review

EXCLUSIVE: Bid to Revive Doomed Nova Scotia LNG Project Collides with Germany’s Net-Zero Plans

May 16, 2022
250
B.C. Plan Risks GHG Emissions from ‘Blue’ Hydrogen

Methane Emissions Far Exceed Reported Levels as Ontario Plans New Gas Plants

May 16, 2022
90
Fossil Industry Faces ‘Epochal Change’ in Saudi Aramco IPO

Trade Protection for Fossils Could Add Hundreds of Billions to Cost of Climate Action

May 16, 2022
86
New York Looks to Replace Six Gas Peaker Plants, Brings Environmental Justice Groups Into the Process

Ontario Power Emissions to Rise 400% After Ford Cancels Hundreds of Renewables Projects

May 14, 2022
322
Petrosaurus Rex vs. Reality: Teck Mine Defeated by Low Price of Oil

195 ‘Carbon Bombs’ Show Fossils On Track to Shatter 1.5° Target

May 12, 2022
446
VCIB Unveils First Dedicated Loan Program for Commercial Solar Projects

Distributed Energy Matches New Gas Capacity in the U.S., Lags in Canada

May 16, 2022
75

Recent Posts

3,800 Residents Ordered to Evacuate after Flooding in Hay River, NWT

3,800 Residents Ordered to Evacuate after Flooding in Hay River, NWT

May 16, 2022
66
Record 2016 Heat Almost Hits Paris’ Aspirational 1.5ºC Ceiling

India Halts Wheat Exports to Protect Food Security as Southeast Asia Faces Deadly Heat Wave

May 16, 2022
67
Analysts Search for Details as UK Pledges 78% Carbon Cut by 2035

Ontario Pushes EV Charging, Leaves Out Vehicle Incentives in Run-Up to June Vote

May 16, 2022
72
Fossils ‘Stunned’, ‘Aghast’ After Biden Pauses New Oil and Gas Leases

U.S. Cancels Oil and Gas Lease Sales in Gulf of Mexico, Alaska, with Five-Year Drilling Plan in Doubt

May 16, 2022
53
4.3 Million Displaced, 1.5 Million Could Starve as Oil Fuels South Sudan Civil War

Cities Must Prepare for Waves of Climate Refugees: Panel

May 16, 2022
56
Canadian Solar Announces Probe into Forced Labour Allegations

Canadian Solar Announces Probe into Forced Labour Allegations

May 16, 2022
20
Next Post
Buyout by Vancity Brings New Financial Clout to Green Bond Provider CoPower

Virginia Set to Embrace Carbon-Free Energy, Join RGGI After Democrats Win Legislative Majority

The Energy Mix

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}
Are you sure want to unlock this post?
Unlock left : 0
Are you sure want to cancel subscription?