Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent
Yesterday, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf signed legislation designed to open up more clean-energy investment in the state by creating a statewide Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) program into law.
PACE is a financing mechanism that enables low-cost, long-term funding for energy efficiency, renewable energy, and water conservation upgrades to commercial or industrial properties through property taxes. This allows businesses to invest in upgrades like renewable energy while paying no money upfront. In states where it’s available, PACE has proven to be a popular program.
As Wolf said in his statement announcing the signing:
This innovative financing mechanism will support the creation of new clean energy and energy efficiency projects throughout the commonwealth, while also enhancing property values and employment opportunities, while lowering the costs of doing business. The implementation of this economic development tool in Pennsylvania is yet another example of the bipartisan work that can come out of Harrisburg when we work together on common sense legislation.
According to Wolf, 33 states plus the District of Columbia authorize PACE financing for clean energy and energy efficiency projects; this includes a diverse group of states such as Alabama, California, Georgia, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, and Texas.
Late last year, Wolf also signed Act 40 into law, which fixed a loophole in Pennsylvania law concerning Solar Renewable Energy Credits, or SRECs. Under old Pennsylvania law, Pennsylvania’s SREC producers could only sell their SRECs within the state, but states outside Pennsylvania could buy into the Pennsylvania market.
This had caused a run on SRECs by out-of-state buyers and plunged the state’s SREC market into chaos, effectively closing down the Pennsylvania market until further notice, since deals became nearly impossible to finance through normal channels. Act 40 closed that out-of-state market loophole, and SRECs in the state are slowly recovering some of their value.
Between closing the SREC loophole and creating this new PACE program, the Keystone State may be on its way back to solar prominence.