Bank of Washington open for business for clean tech companies.

• Author: Cole, Rebecca
• Position: [ENERGY]

In February, when President Barack Obama signed a stimulus bill containing $42 billion for renewable energy and clean tech projects, the promise of thousands of new green collar jobs appeared to be on the horizon.

But four months after Obama's appearance at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, the funding is just a trickle, causing Energy Secretary Steven Chu to publicly lament the slow pace of distribution. As of June 26, only $6.6 billion had been awarded and only $142 million spent, according to the Department of Energy's website.

Now it's a waiting game, said officials from the Governor's Energy Office and Greenprint Denver at an event hosted in late June by CORE Colorado to help clean tech companies snag contracts and grants for new energy projects.

"I'm going to talk about possibilities because right now all of our funds are waiting for approval," said Joel Asrael, manager of the GEO's commercial buildings program.

Three "pots of money" from the DOE will flow to the state, Asrael said, including $49 million for state energy programs (which normally survive on just $500,000); $80 million for weatherization programs for low-income residential housing; and $42 million in energy efficiency conservation grants to be divvied up among municipalities across the state. (Visit Colorado.gov/recovery or the Governor's Energy Office for more details.)

"Because we are still waiting for DOE funding, and we're still getting information back from them, any of this could change," Asrael said.

The city and county of Denver expects to receive more than $6 million in block grants alone, by far the largest amount of money the city has ever had for energy efficiency projects, said Scott Morrissey, deputy director of Greenprint Denver.

But with the DOE pushing back its deadline for applications from June to August, the timing for implementation is...