Upping the PACE for Going Green

By Anonymous on June 29, 2010

Join us on July 7 for a Webinar on PACE Financing

If you haven't yet heard about PACE financing, you probably will very soon. PACE (Property-Assessed Clean Energy financing) is catching on all over North America, providing home- and building-owners with a way to finance energy efficiency retrofits (insulation, new windows) and renewable energy systems.

Over 100 cities are currently developing PACE programs as a means to quickly reduce their carbon footprints by making residences more energy-efficient.

Join us for BCSEA's July Climate and Energy Solutions webinar on PACE Financing features Johanna Partin, Director of Climate Protection Initiatives in the Office of Mayor Gavin Newsom of the City of San Francisco, and David Ramslie, Manager of the City of Vancouver's Sustainable Development Program.

San Francisco has launched the largest PACE program in partnership with Renewable Funding, an investment firm which specializes in PACE programs, and will be putting up $150 million in capital to fund retrofits for about 8,000 homes in San Francisco.

The loan is made to the property (hence property-assessed), the individual homeowner, so the homeowner is not being required to put up capital nor repay the loan when the home sells. The loan is paid back to the city through a voluntary tax incorporated into the home's property tax payment. Depending on what retrofits are done, this additional tax is more than paid for in reduced energy savings.

Homeowners love it because they get dramatically reduced utility bills without paying for anything. The city loves it because they get to be green without having to finance, and the banks love it because they get nearly zero-default loan products.

PACE financing is highlighted in "A Bright Green Future", Vancouver's plan for becoming the world's greenest city by 2020. However, Vancouver currently does not have the legal power to issue this kind of bond. This is a major barrier to Vancouver’s desire to be at the forefront of tackling climate change through making our buildings greener and more efficient. In order for Vancouver to emulate these popular retrofit financing programs, it needs to persuade the provincial government to amend the Vancouver Charter to give it this power.