On November 18, New York State announced passage of the municipal clean energy loan program, which allows communities to leverage Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) loan programs to further an agenda of energy efficiency and renewable energy.
The bill was passed in special session at the urging of its promoter, Steve Israel (D-NY), who has been instrumental in seeing the measure come to fruition in spite of the state’s legislative foot-draggers.
The move effectively reverses a long-standing law which prohibited cities and municipalities within the state from assessing loan payments via property taxes, and puts said municipalities on par to engage in competitive bidding for funds. It also allows property owners to opt for the increased yearly tax burden to pay for energy efficiency and renewable projects over a longer period.
PACE, which has a double handful of support from such “green” agencies as the Environmental Defense Fund, the National Resources Defense Council, the Sierra Club and the Solar Energy Industries Association, is an approved vehicle for renewable energy funding in such solar cities as San Diego, California and Boulder, Colorado, and in the states of Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, New Mexico, Oregon and Wisconsin.
In October, Vice President Joe Biden dedicated $454 million in ARRA (the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) funding to support PACE programs. The program is called “Recovery through Retrofit”. Applications are due in December and awarded on a competitive basis.
PACE bond funding could, according to its advocacy group PACE Now, top $500 billion, leading to increased (and badly needed) energy efficiency upgrades to older buildings to reduce energy use, or providing an opportunity for homeowners and businesses to install renewable energy technologies like solar photovoltaic energy systems, solar thermal hot water/heating, or geothermal heat pumps. All of which would improve the nation’s green energy profile, reduce the use of fossil-fuel generation, and help provide energy security in an increasingly troubled world.
The program would be especially helpful in New York city, where a plethora of older, ‘energy hog’ buildings and high electricity prices make retrofitting for efficiency mandatory if the city is to meet its reduced energy mandate under a new “green building” law recently instituted by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
This law, which will require building owners and managers to conduct regular energy audits and retrofit for energy efficiency in a cost-effective manner, takes effect in 2013 and applies to buildings larger than 50,000 square feet. Owners and managers will also be required to benchmark building’s energy use against other, similarly sized and purposed structures.
Across the entire state, Paterson has established the “45 by 15” initiative, which requires New York to meet 45 percent of its electricity needs through renewable energy and improved building energy efficiencies by 2015.
This is one of the most stringent renewable energy standards in the nation, and meeting it would be difficult to impossible without the emergency legislation, since the state’s NYSERDA (New York State Energy Research and Development Authority) program cut back incentives in mid-October to prevent the money from running out altogether.
The new, lower level of funding for solar photovoltaic installations now stands at $2.50 per watt, down from $3, with incentives for commercial and nonprofit solar also cut. So the PACE measure offers renewed hope to solar manufacturers and installers, as well as homeowners and businesses eyeing solar energy as a path to a clean energy future.