Source: Renovate America
California county becomes latest local or state government in U.S. to give residents access to innovative financing for home energy and efficiency improvements
SAN DIEGO, July 13, 2017 – Supervisors in Tulare County, California, voted this week to give residents access to Renovate America’s HERO Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing for home energy and efficiency improvements. The vote was the latest in a string of local legislative victories for both HERO and PACE, and showed momentum for the innovative financing mechanism growing in California and beyond.
The vote by Tulare County supervisors to allow HERO to be offered in unincorporated portions of that county came as supervisors in neighboring Kern County voted 4-0 to give HERO a six-month extension to operate there. It also came a day after commissioners in Collier County, Florida, gave final approval to HERO in that county’s unincorporated region, which followed similar moves earlier this year by commissioners in Hillsborough and Pasco counties – also in Florida – and supervisors in California’s Amador and Glenn counties. Last month, city councilmembers in Santa Rosa, California, voted to give their residents access to HERO, as did the city of Columbia, Missouri.
PACE financing has also been gaining momentum nationwide. In May, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper signed legislation that moved his state a step closer to being able to offer residential PACE financing, and several other states are seriously considering PACE legislation. Also earlier this year, the city councils of Cupertino, Sunnyvale and Santa Barbara, California, voted to give their residents access to PACE financing.