3FOOD

Third Industrial Revolution Consulting Group
Figure 3.
Conceptual overview of reduction of energy use and costs for program
participants under SEF programming.
1.2.1.1 SEF: A Market-Tested Model
The SEF investment model was first applied in the United States. Operationalized through the
Delaware Sustainable Energy Utility (SEU) 216 in the U.S. state of Delaware, on behalf of six state
agencies and two institutions of higher learning, the Sustainable Energy Bond Series was issued
in 2011. The state-wide, tax-exempt bond issue raised $72.5 million in sustainable energy
capital from the private market, sufficient to invest in energy saving measures that deliver a
guaranteed $148 million in aggregate energy savings. 217 All-in program costs, including
216 The SEU concept is the result of 20 years of research conducted by Dr. John Byrne and his colleagues at the
Center for Energy & Environmental Policy (CEEP) at the University of Delaware. Additional information on the
model can be found at http://freefutures.org/seu-initiative/.
217 Original planned issuance of the bonds stood at $67.4 million. However, average coverage of orders and
allotments by maturity of the DE SEU bond offering was 1.2x. In addition, the $67.4 million par value Sustainable
Energy Bond was oversold within two hours of its offering. The serial bond issue generated premiums in excess of
$5 million and sold at the low arbitrage yield of 3.67% over its 20 year debt service period.
267