Finding Financial Solutions for Green Energy

Finding Financial Solutions for Green Energy. I’m Greg Martin as Line On Agriculture presents the Harvest Clean Energy Report.

The banking industry has undergone some major changes in the last couple of years and that can make funding renewable energy projects difficult. Jae Easterbrooks with Shore Bank Pacific says they are one of the few banks that are still actively working with projects.

EASTERBROOKS: We are a bank that has a specific kind of mission and that mission is about supporting businesses and individuals who may have efforts in developing sustainable business practices and for us that straddles the environment and agriculture in a very big way. We focus on renewable energy and we focus on agriculture in a very specialized manner.

That means new kinds of distribution and supporting of smaller organic operations. And where a lot of banks are not really lending money at this time, Shore Bank Pacific is.

EASTERBROOKS: It’s very much a part of our mission to be lending to this space. We’re actually one of the few state charter banks that was – were told – profitable in 2009 so we are out there lending. We’re happy to do that and in fact it’s a mandate from the people who deposit in our bank.

Easterbrooks was the moderator of a recent panel discussion during the Harvesting Clean Energy Conference. He says they try to work with local, state and national government programs.

EASTERBROOKS: We very much like working with the USDA, with their guarantees. You know State of Washington, Department of Commerce, we’ve gotten to know a lot of people from that department and then of course there’s the SBA. I can’t say we have any influence on the grant side but we do have, I think, the ability to pick projects that – we’ve developed a reputation of being worthwhile projects.

The renewable sector has been growing and Easterbrooks says that many people are becoming much more educated on the industry and what it takes to successfully complete green projects.

EASTERBROOKS: But there is extraordinary interest in this space and with those people who really have the where-with-all to bring projects along and that means business experience plus their own capital and just the drive to do it – that amount of people has expanded greatly so it’s wonderful for our banking business and it’s going to be good for the State of Washington and all the States of the northwest.

For additional information on clean energy, visit harvestcleanenergy.org. That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.

www.harvestcleanenergy.org