Commercial property-assessed clean energy (PACE) financed projectsclimbed to nearly $60 million in 2013. And that figure will likely swell in the coming years.
There is more than $215 million in PACE project applications in the pipeline, according to PACENow, a nonprofit that promotes PACE programs. Meanwhile, many more such programs are just getting off the ground.
PACE allows investments in energy-efficiency retrofits and distributed renewable generation to be paid back through a tax that is tied to the property, which lowers the risk for both lenders and owners and can potentially open up a far larger swath of the energy efficiency market.
California and Connecticut are already two of the most important states for commercial PACE because of the number and scope of their programs. California has taken a city-by-city approach, while Connecticut has employed a state-level approach.