In a recent New York Times blog, we found that several municipalities across the county were getting creative and experimenting with incremental, neighborhood- or district-based lending programs that help homeowners pay the up-front capital costs for residential renewable energy projects. 

Under what are called “geographic targeting” or “renewable energy community” programs, a lender — be it a city, utility or bank — effectively goes door-to-door, offering homeowners or businesses within designated neighborhoods low-interest loans to complete efficiency or renewable energy projects. 

The following cities have implemented these kinds of programs and are a good source of information on how other towns and cities can do the same: 

1. Berkeley, Calif. approved the creation of a citywide Sustainable Energy Financing District in 2007 to help property owners install solar-powered electric and thermal systems. 
2. Babylon, N.Y., has introduced the Long Island Green Homes program to provide low-cost loans for home energy efficiency projects.  
3. In Austin, Tex., and Boulder, Colo., community energy demonstration projects aimed at deploying new smart-grid technologies have been developed.  
4. And similar initiatives are underway in Vermont and Connecticut and Portland Oregon. 

See the details at http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/06/cities-use-creative-targeted-lending-to-speed-energy-projects/