This week, I attended a symposium about Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing. PACE is a way for property owners to fund energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. The Massachusetts program is also looking at funding for resiliency measures. Secretary Richard Sullivan’s opening remarks reiterated the Governor’s commitment to a sustainable energy future in Massachusetts. Senator Brian Joyce followed with how PACE legislation will help to accomplish this goal. He also presented the current proposed updates to the PACE legislation in Massachusetts Bill S.177.
The new legislation would rework the current PACE financing legislation to include commercial, multi-family and industrial properties. The state hired a consultant, Harcourt Brown & Carey, in 2012 to look at the successes and failures of PACE programs in other states as well as the current structure of Massachusetts in order to determine a direction of the MA PACE program. We heard from a panel made up of representatives from Harcourt Brown & Carey, MassDevelopment, DOER, and PACE Now on the benefits of the financing model to energy efficiency and resiliency projects as well as opportunities and challenges to making the program successful in MA.
To learn more about PACE in MA visit the links below:
http://brianajoyce.com/senator-joyce-s-clean-jobs-bill
http://www.mass.gov/eea/docs/doer/pub-info/doer-pace-study.pdf
Topics: Sustainability