In early March 2013 the Pennsylvania Treasury announced that it had sold approximately 4,700 loans made through its Keystone Home Energy Loan Program. In exchange for the loans, the Treasury received $23 million in cash and $8.3 million in deferred payments, for a total sale value of $31.3 million. The cash component of the sale was provided by three banks – Fox Chase Bank, WSFS Bank, and National Penn Bank.
The Keystone Home Energy Program provides low-interest loans for high-efficiency furnace or boiler replacements, geothermal heating and cooling units, insulation installations, door and window replacements, and other energy conservation measures. To date, the program has made almost 11,000 loans for more than $75 million.
Pennsylvania Treasurer Rob McCord described the sale of some of these loans on the secondary market as a national milestone in efforts to “engage the private sector” in providing finance for residential energy efficiency, and thereby “increase access to low-cost capital for this type of money-saving, job-creating investment.” The significance of the sale has also been noted by the federal government, with U.S. Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy David Danielson describing the success of the Pennsylvania program as “moving the energy efficiency industry a step closer to accessing capital markets and helping to position the United States to lead the global clean energy race.”
