More than 110 electric utilities across the country, predominately electric cooperatives, offer on-bill programs, including on-bill financing (OBF) and tariffed on-bill (TOB) programs, to encourage consumer adoption of energy-saving upgrades such as weatherization, ENERGY STAR® appliances and lighting, and some distributed energy resources. Distributed wind turbines are not yet incorporated into on-bill programs; however, they may be an untapped opportunity for some cooperatives and members.
This advisory through NRECA's RADWIND project is the first in a series of case studies on financing distributed wind projects, and provides an overview of on-bill programs, program financing sources, and scenarios for including small-scale (100 kW or less) wind equipment as a program measure.