by Greg Zimmerman, Executive Editor March 2015 – Energy Efficiency
For more extensive, longer-term energy efficiency projects, owners may consider property-assessed clean energy (PACE) financing — a financing vehicle that allows owners to borrow money from a local government and pay it back over time on the building’s property tax bill. PACE is now available in 31 states covering about 80 percent of the population in the U.S. “We’ve seen a definite uptake in the commercial market (for PACE), despite the rocky regulatory landscape,” says ACEEE’s Bell.
NAESCO’s Gilligan agrees. “We see a lot of potential in PACE,” he says. “It’s a little more complicated than other financing, and it requires a state law plus a local law plus a program to enable it. But if you can do PACE, you’ve got lower-cost money. PACE makes it easier for comprehensive retrofits.” Read more.