Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing is one of the awesomest clean energy programs out there. Basically, here’s the summary: 1) your solar power system (or energy efficiency upgrade) is financed through government-issued bonds*; 2) you pay the bonds back through higher property taxes for a decade or two to come; 3) you save more money on your electricity bill from day 1 than you pay in higher property taxes. Furthermore, if you decide to sell your house, the beneficial system just carries over to the new owner.
PACE financing started in Berkeley in 2008. In 2009, Vice President Joe Biden planned to roll it out across the United States. Then, in 2010, the Federal Housing Finance Agency cut the program off at the knees all across the nation with the claim that the loans posed an unacceptable risk to mortgage lenders, even though the program allowed homeowners to cut their electricity bills and electricity is one of the last things people decide to stop paying when in financial difficulties. The argument was based on the fact that the PACE loans attached to the properties as liens, which would make paying them back a priority over paying back mortgage lenders. Read more.