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Property Assessed Clean Energy: What is the PACE Program and How Does it Work?

 
Question:

Charles asks: What is the PACE program and how can I take advantage of it? Thank you.

Answer:
Advice provided by: Brian Sutton, LEED AP, eCaerus
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Hi Charles,

A Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) bond is a bond where the proceeds are provided to commercial and residential property owners to finance energy retrofits (efficiency measures and small renewable energy systems) and who then repay the financing 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.

To really get the big picture I suggest visiting: http://pacenow.org/blog/ It’s full of links and useful info.

The Senate Banking Committee did a presentation that does a good job explaining the intricacies – the pdf version may be downloaded here.

This program has been banged around congress like other renewable energy bills and there is no light at the end of the tunnel. Our nation’s leaders are not receptive to this type of change. Too bad!

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Expert Advice and Comments

RE: PACE and Fannie and Freddie

Fri, 08/13/2010 - 12:19 — Globalarming (not verified)

It's ironic that a program designed to reduce our ridiculous, unhealthy dependencies on oil, etc. is being held back by two of the most corrupt, conceptually outdated pseudo-governmental companies in history, Fannie and Freddie... supposedly because of the perception of increased risk!

Indeed, those two companies may cease to exist in the future because their risk/reward structures are so inherently illogical as to be absurd (to the taxpayers at least) and yet as they flail around slowly sinking into the abyss, they still unapologetically persist in f**king things up for the country by holding back the promise of potential advances not only to domestic employment, but also to reducing dependence on fossil fuels we unnecessarily spend billions of dollars on every year to heat and power our homes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/12/opinion/12poole.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=fan...

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