Philanthropy has a unique opportunity to achieve greater impact by aligning our investments with our grant making capacity. As the transition towards a clean energy economy accelerates, mission-aligned investments can catalyze justice-centered clean energy solutions that service historically marginalized communities and build wealth while delivering climate solutions.
Wallace Global Fund helped to launch Working Power to build community wealth and power. A collaborative platform for developing, financing, and owning local clean energy projects for the long-term. Working Power partners with local community NGOs, BIPOC-led organizations, and small businesses to develop clean energy projects. They leverage local relationships and mission-aligned capital to embark on community campaigns that identify sites and build capacity to operate and maintain projects. The model ensures co-ownership and community participation in project design and shares the revenue for the lifetime of a project, typically 20-25 years.
Working Power’s innovative model includes the following key components:
- Working Power Impact Fund: a revolving loan fund that serves as an investment vehicle for predevelopment and construction financing, access to capital at competitive terms, and simplified transaction structures.
- Working Power Project Equity Fund: provides “equity grants” to community partners in support of site selection, recruitment and job training, community benefits administration, and more.
- Working Power Development Platform: delivers centralized technical project development and financial support and capacity to achieve accountable public benefits while accessing markets for scaled impact.
Working Power is in predevelopment or managing live projects in six states. Once funded and complete, these projects will:
- Generate 40MW of clean energy for approx. 10K homes & businesses
- Create 2,100+ jobs.
- Provide a carbon offset equivalent to planting and maintaining 520K+ trees for ten years.
- Deliver approximately $92M in community benefits.
Working Power is now in its second phase of raising impact capital and philanthropic project equity grants with the goal of reaching 100 communities with 100MW of clean energy generating $250M in community equity and benefits.
Project Spotlight: Brentwood Reservoir
The Brentwood Reservoir Community Solar project represents Working Power’s first investment and is one of the largest solar installations in Washington, DC. The project will decrease energy costs by 50 percent for more than 500 income-qualified DC families. The installation innovatively uses the land on a capped 25-million-gallon Brentwood Reservoir operated by DC Water. The Working Power Impact Fund provided a $2.5M below-market loan to launch the project. Over the project’s life, it will generate approximately $10M in community benefits through energy savings for DC residents and revenue for non-profit partners NHT and DC Water.