Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) programs, which allow private property owners to finance energy-efficiency and renewable-energy projects via their property taxes, has been taking off around the country. These programs are designed to spur private improvements to reduce our nation’s energy consumption, create green jobs, and lower energy bills.
The first PACE program was announced in Berkeley, Calif., in 2007. Since that time, 17 states have adopted some version of PACE and more than 200 cities and counties throughout the country are preparing to launch programs.
PACE offers a bright spot in the efforts to jump-start investments in clean-energy and energy-efficiency projects. With Berkeley’s pilot program now completed, it is time to take stock of what was learned through the experiment. In short, the Berkeley pilot was a remarkable success: it proved that PACE financing is feasible and taught us a lot about how to take programs to scale.
Berkeley’s pilot, called BerkeleyFIRST, launched in November 2008 with a solar-only financing program. BerkeleyFIRST was a small-scale program designed to test the idea of PACE-type financing in the ... Read more
