If you want to start a renewable energy revolution, you’re going to need some money up front. That’s the challenge in New York State, where leaders want to generate half the state’s electricity from renewables within 13 years.

NY Green Bank logo

To make sure capital is available for new technology and research, the state opened a special new bank. It’s called “NY Green Bank.”

Angoorly: “We overcome market barriers and financing gaps so things that the traditional commercial financial players are not necessarily geared up to address at this point.”

That’s Caroline Angoorly, chief operating officer of NY Green Bank. She says the bank has supported wind energy systems, solar projects, even hydrogen fuel cells.

Angoorly: “We’re interested in electric vehicle infrastructure. We’re looking at energy storage, and micro grids.”

By making capital available, the bank is giving a boost to clean power. And there’s no shortage of projects to choose from.

Angoorly: “We’ve discovered much to our delight that there was pent up demand there for a lot of these clean energy developments, and I think there are a lot of people with a lot of great ideas and a lot of great technologies out there.”

Reporting credit: ChavoBart Digital Media.

Sara Peach is the editor-in-chief of Yale Climate Connections. She is an environmental journalist whose work has appeared in National Geographic, Scientific American, Environmental Health News, Grist,...