Sectors of Focus

The Climate Catalyst Program is focused on sectors critical to the state’s climate mitigation and resilience strategies.

Projects must be within the state of California.

Six-Factor Test Criteria
Eligible projects, activities, and technologies must meet all of the Six-Factor Test criteria:

Reduces or avoids greenhouse gas emissions.
Reduces or avoids emissions of other air pollutants.
Delivers additional benefits to communities within one or more of the following categories: climate change, clean energy and energy efficiency, clean transportation, affordable and sustainable housing, training and workforce development, remediation and reduction of legacy pollution, and development of critical clean water infrastructure.
May not have otherwise been financed.
Mobilizes private capital.
Supports only commercial technologies, defined as technologies that have been deployed for commercial purposes at least three times for a period of at least five years each in the United States for the same general purpose as the project, activity, or technology.

In addition, Climate Catalyst places priority on three sectors:

Distributed Generation and Storage
Zero-Emissions Transportation
Net-Zero Emissions Buildings

Distributed Generation and Storage

Projects, activities, and technologies that deploy small-scale power generation and/or storage technologies supporting carbon-pollution free electricity, plus enabling infrastructure necessary for deployment of such generation and/or storage technologies.

IBank is generally focused on generation and storage projects that are larger than residential-scale assets, but smaller than traditional utility-scale assets. Distribution system upgrades necessary for project interconnection are also eligible for financing.

Projects may include (but are not limited to):

Community wind and solar
Fuel cells
Rooftop or ground-mounted solar and storage
Geothermal generation and storage
Stand-alone energy storage, including replacement of backup diesel generators with battery storage
Distributed generation and storage assets that support microgrids

View the Distributed Generation and Storage project categories and eligibility criteria, outlined in IBank’s Climate Catalyst Fund Financing Plan.

Zero-Emissions Transportation

Projects, activities, and technologies that deploy zero-emissions transportation modes, plus enabling infrastructure necessary for zero-emissions transportation modes. Zero-emissions transportation projects should be consistent with California policy and the US National Blueprint for Transportation Decarbonization.

Projects may include (but are not limited to) deployment of:

Electric vehicle chargers, hydrogen refueling depots, and other infrastructure to support zero-emission light, medium, heavy-duty, and off-road vehicles
Zero-emissions light, medium, and heavy-duty vehicles
(Note: Due to minimum deal size limitations, IBank primarily intends to support fleet-scale investments).
Charging and refueling depots for zero-emissions school buses, off-road trucks, and public transportation vehicles
Infrastructure to deploy zero-emissions micromobility options and bikeability

View the Zero-Emissions Transportation project categories and eligibility criteria, outlined in IBank’s Climate Catalyst Fund Financing Plan.

Net-Zero Emissions Buildings

Projects, activities, and technologies that either retrofit an existing building, making a substantial contribution to that building being a net-zero emissions building and as part of a plan for that building achieving net-zero emissions over time, or construct a new net-zero emissions building in a Low-Income and Disadvantaged Community.

Projects may include (but are not limited to):

Decarbonization of multifamily, commercial, industrial, and other buildings, including energy efficiency, geothermal heating and cooling, and grid-interactive appliance electrification
School building space and water heating grid-interactive electrification
Decarbonization retrofits as part of adaptive reuse of existing buildings to create community facilities

View the Net-Zero Emissions Building project categories and eligibility criteria, outlined in IBank’s Climate Catalyst Fund Financing Plan.

PLEASE NOTE: The Climate Catalyst Program is not accepting applications in the Forest Biomass Management and Utilization, Climate-Smart Agriculture, and Clean Energy Transmission projects at this time.

Projects in these sectors may be eligible for Climate Catalyst Program support if they meet the Six-Factor Test under the Climate Catalyst Fund Financing Plan.

Forest Biomass Management and Utilization

Projects that reduce wildfire threats through expanding markets for forest biomass management and utilization.

Projects may include (but are not limited to):

Sustainable vegetation management
Forestry practices
Timber harvesting products such as advance energy and construction materials

At present, projects in this category must also comply with the Six-Factor Test to be eligible for financing.

View the Forest Biomass Management and Utilization project categories and eligibility criteria.

Clean Energy Transmission

Projects that increase access to zero-carbon resources through new clean energy transmission infrastructure.

Projects may include (but are not limited to):

Clean energy transmission project infrastructure
Other necessary technical elements of transmission infrastructure, such as environmental planning, permitting, and preconstruction costs for projects

At present, projects in this category must also comply with the Six-Factor Test to be eligible for financing.

View the Clean Energy Transmission project categories and eligibility criteria.

Climate Smart Agriculture

Projects that promote climate-smart technologies and practices across the agricultural value chain.

Projects may include (but are not limited to):

On-farm and food processing renewable energy, including electricity, fuels, and bioenergy
Energy, water, and materials efficiency
Methane reduction projects that use best practice approaches consistent with state policy goals
Energy storage or microgrids
Equipment replacement

At present, projects in this category must also comply with the Six-Factor Test to be eligible for financing.

View the Climate-Smart Agriculture project categories and eligibility criteria.