Seeking solutions to climate change

WEDC’s Green Innovation Fund will help finance clean technology

As part of WEDC’s push to energize Wisconsin’s clean energy economy, Francisco Sayu joined the organization in January 2024 as vice president of productivity and sustainability—a new division designed to give Wisconsin businesses and residents more access to energy savings.

WEDC Chief Operating Officer Sam Rikkers says the new initiative is a key element in the state’s effort to capitalize on the booming clean energy economy.

“Our manufacturers will not just benefit from clean energy; they will help lead and drive innovation in the clean energy sector,” Rikkers says. “As our businesses capture a share of this growing market, that translates into tremendous opportunities and prosperity for our communities. We will become more energy-efficient, spend less on energy, become more profitable, and reduce the state’s carbon footprint.”

Sayu grew up in Colombia and came to Wisconsin for his college education. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “I fell in love with the state,” he says. “I made it my mission to build a life here.”

Previously, Sayu spent more than 10 years in the clean technology sector, serving as emerging technology director at RENEW Wisconsin and program manager for the Focus on Energy® New Construction Solution.

During the pandemic, Sayu started a nonprofit called the Center for Mobility and Energy Literacy, and his wife, Rebecca Paradiso, launched her own nonprofit, the Institute for Organizational Well-being. The couple have two children and two dogs.

When he’s not working on cleaning the air, Sayu can often be found gliding through the water in the region’s lakes. He is a long-distance swimmer, with miles-long swims through four of the five Great Lakes so far, including one that circled Mackinac Island.

Q: What do you hope to accomplish through WEDC’s Division of Productivity and Sustainability?

A: There are two high-level objectives. One is to support our manufacturers with productivity initiatives to help our state stay competitive. Wisconsin is a manufacturing state, and our manufacturing community is competing with other states and at the global level. There are tools we can provide to help them become more productive and more competitive in the emerging sector of clean energy manufacturing.

Our other goal is to support Wisconsin communities in their efforts to participate in the clean energy economy. We are going through a transition in the way we generate and use energy worldwide. The cost of renewable energy has dropped significantly, and today, it is a lot cheaper to generate electricity from renewable resources than from fossil fuels. There are also a lot of technological advances in energy generation, storage, and efficiency. We’re becoming better at the way we utilize energy.

For each of those objectives, we have specific tools to help us accomplish our goals. For sustainability, one of the main tools we have is clean energy financing. One thing I have learned is that a project can be great, and the regulatory environment can be friendly, but the project may not be built because it’s hard to finance. Investors see it as too risky. To mitigate that, we are creating a fund to help finance clean energy projects. We anticipate that if the financing is approved and the projects are built, we can create a track record and document how much money is spent, what the return is on the investment, and if the project is able to pay for itself during a specific timeframe. We have seen this happen in other markets.

After a few years, we will be able to show traditional lenders that these projects are not so risky, so that they will be more willing to invest.

Q: How did this program come about?

A: The state’s first Clean Energy Plan was presented in 2022; its goals include lowering energy bills, promoting Wisconsin’s energy independence, and moving toward a low-carbon economy. That’s really important because we don’t produce fossil fuels in Wisconsin—we have to buy them from other states, which means we take those dollars out of the state’s economy. It amounts to $12 billion to $14 billion a year that leaves Wisconsin—about half of the state’s annual energy expense.

Q: How will the state’s clean energy financing operate?

A: We are creating the Green Innovation Fund. It was an intentional decision to call it a fund. We want to signal to traditional lenders that we are not a bank that’s going to compete with them. We won’t originate loans, but we will support them. The projects will come to traditional lenders, and we will work with those lenders.

For example, if there is a solar energy project, we can provide some capital to support it. We would be comfortable taking some risk because we know that the technology will perform. That removes some of the risk from the private lender.

Q: Where will the money come from for the Green Innovation Fund?

A: We are currently creating the governance structure for the Green Innovation Fund. It will be a fund within WEDC, not a separate entity. No state funds have been allocated at this time. We will be relying primarily on an allocation from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which was part of the Inflation Reduction Act.

The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund has three parts: Solar for All, the National Clean Investment Fund, and the Clean Communities Investment Accelerator.

• Wisconsin has received $62 million from the $7 billion Solar for All program; its goal is to make solar power available to lower-income families. We will hire a third-party administrator to run the program and work with contractors, developers, and residents. They will identify projects aimed at eligible households: those earning less than 80% of the area’s median income or those situated in low-income housing. The solar installations will have to cut the customer’s electric bill by at least 20%. We’re still working out the details, but households could receive a very low-cost loan or a grant to participate. This will include single-family homes, multi-family developments, and community solar projects. We plan to start the program in summer 2025, and it will operate for five years. This is going to be a statewide program; we’re probably going to prioritize households based on energy burden. We’re working with a variety of community groups; we’re also talking to labor organizations because these programs offer the opportunity to create good jobs.
• The National Clean Investment Fund is dividing $14 billion among three national green banks that will provide funds for affordable clean technology projects nationwide. We are working with at least two of those institutions to identify opportunities for them to create partnerships that will make investments in Wisconsin. The discussions are still in the early stage.
• The $6 billion Clean Communities Investment Accelerator was awarded to five coalitions of community lenders working in low-income or disadvantaged communities. This is aimed at helping to develop net-zero buildings and zero-emissions transportation projects. It’s not clear yet how or when Wisconsin will see any benefits from that program.

Q: How will your team help manufacturers?

A: Our industrial sector produces more than 20% of the greenhouse gas emissions in the state. If you combine manufacturing and agriculture, they produce about one-third of the emissions. So, we cannot ignore the impact of those sectors. We want to leverage federal resources, for example from the U.S. Department of Energy, to help manufacturers gain access to opportunities that include the clean energy manufacturing tax credit so that they can become innovators in the clean energy industry. That will boost the state’s manufacturing companies and will help Wisconsin to move toward energy independence.