VAEEC member, the Northern Virginia Regional Commission (NVRC), has put together an interactive dashboard of all LEED certified buildings in Virginia. These buildings represent a significant investment in resiliency and sustainability. Programs like PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) are an important financial tool to provide options to a building owner considering some level of LEED certification.

Read More (NVRC)

(Electricity Markets and Policy Group, Berkeley Lab)

Nonresidential buildings are responsible for over a quarter of primary energy consumption in the United States. Efficiency improvements in these buildings could result in significant energy and utility bill savings. To unlock those potential savings, a number of market barriers to energy efficiency must be addressed.

Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE) financing programs can help overcome several of these barriers with minimal investment from state and local governments. With programs established or under development in 22 states, and at least $521 million in investments so far, other state and local governments are interested in bringing the benefits of C-PACE to their jurisdictions.

Lessons in Commercial PACE Leadership: The Path from Legislation to Launch, aims to fast track the set-up of C-PACE programs for state and local governments by capturing the lessons learned from leaders. The report examines the list of potential program design options and important decision points in setting up a C-PACE program, tradeoffs for available options, and experiences of stakeholders that have gone through (or are going through) the process.

C-PACE uses a voluntary special property assessment to facilitate energy and other improvements in commercial buildings. For example:

• Long financing terms under C-PACE can produce cash flow-positive projects to help overcome a focus on short paybacks.
• Payment obligations can transfer to subsequent owners, mitigating concern about investing in improvements for a building that may be sold before the return on the investment is fully realized.
• 100% of both hard and soft costs can be financed.

Read the full report. 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) announced today the release of two documents designed to spur investment in commercial solar projects.

The first document is a contract that combines the benefits of a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) to provide customers with a valuable new financing option.

“The PACE PPA further builds out SEIA’s suite of model contracts so all solar transactions can be efficiently negotiated and financed,” said Mike Mendelsohn, SEIA’s senior director of project finance & capital markets. “Our goal is to broadly open the U.S. commercial real estate sector for solar deployment, and the PACE PPA is a valuable tool to allow that progress to happen.”

Read more (Solar Energy Industries Assoc.)

Residential PACE has been the best financing solution for the roughly 160,000 homeowners who have used it for energy, water, and safety related projects that they wanted or needed to make; projects that made their homes more comfortable, healthier, safer, less expensive to heat and cool, and more valuable. State and local government partners also appreciate the tens of thousands of local jobs that R-PACE has helped create and sustain. PACE financing for commercial, industrial, agricultural and non-profit owned properties is now available widely throughout the United States, a success story the Journal has ignored.

There is a great story to tell. But instead, the Wall Street Journal, yesterday, ran another in a series of misleading stories about PACE. Yesterday’s, again, includes many ill drawn conclusions and seems to reflect the author’s clear bias for sensationalism.

There is simply no evidence to suggest that PACE is a looming crisis for the banking industry or homeowners.  None.  Zero. There is no data to suggest that PACE homes are delinquent or likely to default at rates higher than those for the broader housing market in PACE served communities. With more than 60,000 new homes using PACE over the previous year, it is not surprising that the number of defaults has increased. But there is absolutely no indication that the PACE assessment has been the direct cause of the delinquencies or defaults in any but the tiny number of anecdotal cases that the Journal has reported on.

Read more (PACENation)

In hundreds of counties and cities across America, local officials are embracing Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE). PACE effectively expands access to credit to help property owners improve or repair their properties with efficient products, while creating and sustaining local jobs at no cost to public budgets. Solution-oriented mayors like us appreciate the innovation and value of PACE – which is why it’s bewildering to see lawmakers in Congress trying to kill it off.

PACE has bipartisan appeal – and is also supported by groups as varied as the National Association of Manufacturers and the Natural Resources Defense Council – because it offers a free-market approach to advancing public-policy objectives. PACE gives property owners access to private capital to make energy, efficiency and resiliency improvements to their properties; the financing is then repaid at a fixed rate through an additional line item on the owner’s property taxes.

Read the full op-ed.(The Hill; Authors: Jeri Muoio Ph.D. (D), Mayor of West Palm Beach, Fla. and Rex Parris (R), Mayor of Lancaster, Calif.)

Property Assessed Clean Energy financing, or PACE, is starting to get more and more attention around the Commonwealth and the nation. In fact, Governor McAuliffe and his administration recognized PACE as a viable means to create more jobs, save energy, and lower electricity bills in a recent press release. As it’s popularity increases, many are still unaware of just exactly what PACE is and who it can benefit.

PACE financing is a loan program to help bring low-cost, long-term capital to fund the rehabilitation of existing and new privately owned commercial buildings through energy efficiency, renewable energy, and water conservation projects. The loan is repaid annually through the property’s real estate tax bill.

Thirty-three states and Washington, D.C. have passed legislation at the state level to enable PACE financing; nineteen of those states have already started a PACE program. In Virginia, a commercial PACE, or C-PACE, enabling law was originally enacted in 2009 and amended in 2015. Virginia’s PACE law requires a locality to develop a PACE program, and private lenders make the loan and negotiate directly with the property owner on rates and terms. Currently, Arlington County is the only Virginia jurisdiction actively developing a PACE program; however, several over localities are exploring the development of their own programs.

Practically all privately-owned commercial buildings, regardless of size, are eligible for PACE financing, including office, retail, hotel, and industrial space. Eligible PACE projects must either reduce energy consumption or generate energy, and they must be permanently affixed to the property. Eligible improvements include: insulation, solar panels, lighting, roofing, and HVAC systems. In Virginia, commercial, nonprofit, and multifamily buildings (except condos and dwellings with less than five units) are eligible regardless of their age.

PACE offers an array of benefits for each key stakeholder: property owner, contractor, lender, locality.

Property owners:

– 100% financing: PACE covers 100% of all hard and soft project costs, eliminating the need for upfront cash investment.

– Long-term loan: With terms up to 20+ years, PACE loans result in lower annual payments and immediate positive cash flow.

– Transferable: PACE loans do not have to be paid off at the time of sale; they transfer to the new owner.

– Non-accelerating loan

Contractors:

– Increase sales volume and improve profit margin: By covering 100% of project costs and eliminating the requirement for out-of-pocket expense, PACE brings financing to more customers. Since PACE is based on equity in the property and not personal credit, it is easier for more customers to obtain financing.

– Fund deeper energy retrofits: Long-term financing enables customers to take advantage of projects with longer paybacks, which leads to more comprehensive projects with greater effect on energy usage. PACE can also fund efficiency improvements that are not allowable uses of Weatherization Assistance Program funds (i.e. replacement windows).

– Gain support and resources: PACE programs can be developed to offer an array of contractor services to help grow business and streamline financing. Services include training, call center support, customizable marketing materials, tools to pre-qualify customers, project estimation calculators, and web portals for financial analysis and deal-tracking.

– Spur demand for retrofits and energy auditors: As the number of people taking advantage of PACE increases, PACE could spur a surge of private demand for well-trained retrofitters. Additionally, as the program grows, so will the demand for energy audits. Energy audits are used to track a building’s energy usage before and after PACE improvements are installed.

Lenders:

– Meet client’s needs of implementing upgrades

– Increase value of collateral: upgrades and improvements increases the value of the property

– Enhances property owner’s ability to pay their debt: raises net operating income (NOI) through low annual payments and decreased operating costs

Localities:

– Creates employment opportunities for contractors, trades, engineers, vendors, etc.

– Serves as a redevelopment tool for “tired” buildings with obsolescent and inefficient systems

– Improvements make buildings more marketable, leading to better tenant retention and increases property values

– Increased property taxes  and construction fees yields more revenues for jurisdictions

– Reduces locality’s carbon footprint, enabling it to become a green leader

– Minimal municipal burden: a third party administrator carries the cost of starting and running the program

The difference between traditional bank financing and PACE financing:

PACE financing is a lucrative tool that can benefit all parties involved. We look forward to seeing Arlington get their program up and running later this year and are excited to continue working with other localities as they explore the feasibility of developing their own PACE programs.

If you would like additional information about PACE, please contact VAEEC Program Coordinator Jessica Greene.