Vote Solar

Bring PACE Solar Financing to Your State

Want to go solar, don’t have the cash sitting around? Well, you are not alone. It’s a longstanding problem. To overcome the financing hurdle, some cities in the US are implementing an innovative new program where homeowners can access low-interest loans for solar and energy efficiency improvements, and pay them off through a long-term assessment on property taxes.

Unless you live in California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Vermont, or Virginia, your state legislature needs to pass legislation authorizing municipalities to establish Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) programs. (Click here if you live in one of the states mentioned above.)

Can you help encourage your State Representatives to pass legislation to clear the way for PACE?

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May 20, 2013

Subject:

Dear Elected Official:

I write to encourage you to pass legislation to allow cities across our state to offer finance programs to decrease the upfront cost to homeowners of installing solar panels and energy efficient upgrades.  Across the country, cities are helping their residents go solar by offering solar energy loans through a new program called Property Assessed Clean Energy financing (PACE).

Our state legislature needs to pass a law to enable our cities to create PACE finance programs, and I hope you will become a champion of such legislation.  In California and Colorado where these kinds of programs are already allowed, PACE has proven extremely popular among property owners who want to go solar. Now cities across the country are working to replicate the model and bring PACE benefits to their own residents.

Here's how it works: PACE is based upon the concept of a special tax district, which is already used across our state to finance community projects.  PACE expands upon that concept by providing financing to homeowners who choose to install solar energy projects on their property. Entirely removing the high upfront cost of the new solar power system, the financing is repaid through a long-term assessment, usually 20 years, collected on the participating residents’ annual property tax bills.  If the home is sold during this time, the lien stays with the property, meaning obligation of the assessment automatically transfers from one home owner to the next.

Please contact Annie Carmichael at annie@votesolar.org to learn more about this type of legislation.

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Bring PACE Solar Financing to Your State