An in-depth new story from Utility Dive discusses how green banks and green bonds can be complementary forces driving the transition to clean energy.

“Green bonds are a capital-raising mechanism that a wide range of institutions could use to raise capital,” Coalition for Green Capital Executive Director Jeff Schub told Utility Dive. “A green bank is an institution [capitalized by public funds] that invests capital in clean energy projects. [They] are complementary, capital raising and capital deploying.”

Together, they can attract hundreds of billions in institutional and financial market money to fund utility investments in large-scale renewables and public sector investments in local distributed generation. They can also work together to support utility transitions away from high-cost legacy generation to lower-cost “green” generation, stakeholders told Utility Dive.

The piece draws on the example set by established green banks, and explores how a National Climate Bank could support these institutions while also investing directly in clean energy projects. By leveraging private investment and recycling capital, a National Climate Bank could turn billions of dollars in federal funds into trillions invested in clean energy projects.

For more, see the full story by Herman Trabish at Utility Dive.