New green project certification accelerates investment
Matt Golden says the Investors Confidence Project (ICP) helps make it easy for investors to do due diligence with clean tech projects, using the IREE designation to certify them as investor-ready. The well-structured new program is popular with investment firms and banks, and is contributing to unprecedented clean tech investment momentum.
It includes preliminary energy audits, peer review by third-party engineering firms, and a requirement that all project budgets include system commissioning. The electricity sector became the biggest recipient of energy investment in 2016, while oil and gas fell by more than 25%. The value of green building investments in the USA is approximately $80-$100 billion each year, and green certified new non-residential buildings are up to more than 40% of all US projects now, compared with 2% in 2005.