What is the PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) solar financing program?

Here is information about the PACE program from: https://pacenation.org/

A PACE bond is a bond where the proceeds are lent to commercial and residential property owners to finance energy retrofits (efficiency measures and small renewable energy systems) and who then repay their loans over 20 years via an annual assessment on their property tax bill. PACE bonds can be issued by municipal financing districts or finance companies and the proceeds can be typically used to retrofit both commercial and residential properties.

The PACE bond market, in combination with federal loan guarantees, has the potential to dramatically accelerate the energy retrofitting of America's building stock due to the below advantages. It is estimated that the potential for PACE bonds could exceed $500 billion.

PACE Impact: Property tax lien oriented financing that dramatically improves the economics of energy retrofits (efficiency measures and micro renewable energy)

Our Nation:

• Significant job creation
• Accelerates movement toward energy independence & reduces GHG emissions
• Very low fiscal cost & high probability of success

Property Owner:

• Lower energy bills and substantially reduced upfront costs for energy retrofits
• Improved return on investment/positive cash flow on retrofits (annual savings > cost)

States, Cities & Municipalities:

• Immediate job creation
• No credit or general obligation risk
• Obligation is liability of real estate owner
• Greenhouse gas reductions/energy independence
• Opt in: Only those real estate owners who opt in pay for it

Existing Mortgage Lenders:

• Borrowers cash flow/credit profile improves (energy savings > annual tax cost)
• Property/collateral value increases

Lender:

• Virtually no risk of loss as property tax liens are senior to mortgage debt
• 97% of property taxes are current & losses are less than 1%

Here is information about PACE in your area:

Map of PACE programs nationally

Here is another link to UC Berkeley that has a list of many of the current PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy)  programs.

https://rael.berkeley.edu/project/property-assessed-clean-energy-pace-financing/

Berkeley, CA

Palm Desert, CA

Boulder County, CA

Sonoma County, CA

Babylon, NY

Additionally I read that in:

Los Angeles County is investing approximately $11 million in federal grant funds to build a PACE program to serve the county's 88 cities and nearly 10 million residents. The program is designed to encourage private property owners to invest in energy efficiency retrofits and is key part of a broader home retrofit program for LA County. Renewable Funding has been selected to develop and administer the PACE program and will work in partnership with BKi, Build It Green, Energy Coalition and South Bay Environmental Service Centers. LA County’s initiative was developed at the request of the Board of Supervisors.

The LA County PACE program is authorized under California’s AB 811, which enables municipalities to provide private property owners with the ability to finance energy efficiency and renewable energy improvements through a voluntary property tax assessment that is paid back over 20 years.

San Francisco should also be on that list of cities that have passed and are working on a PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) program.

San Francisco PACE progam

The City and County of San Francisco is one of the most recent municipalities to launch a PACE style program and is still actively engaged in the program design phase. This program promises to be ambitious in scope,with plans to finance renewable energy, energy efficiency, and water conservation for single family residential, multifamily residential, commercial, and non-profit properties.

On the DSIRE (Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency) website, they list all of the PACE programs and how to contact the administrators for each state.

http://www.dsireusa.org/

I just learned that Milwaukee Wisconsin signed a PACE Solar lending program on March 11, 2010.   GO Milwaukee!!!

To apply for a PACE Solar loan  click here

Some countries are following in the footsteps of Japan, using incentives to encourage the use and popularity of solar, and it hopes to rely solely on renewable energy sometime in the next 15 to 20 years.