By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent
Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing is one of the most successful mechanisms for funding clean energy improvements in commercial properties. It allows businesses and other commercial enterprises to make energy efficiency and renewable energy projects to their properties with no money up front. Instead, they pay off those investments through their property taxes.
Currently 35 states have C-PACE enabling legislation, and 20 have full-blown functioning programs.
What’s that? (Holds hand to ear.) I’m being told that number is now 36, after Delaware Governor John Carney signed Senate Bill 113 into law, enabling C-PACE financing in the state. The Delaware Sustainable Energy Utility (DESEU) will serve as the administrator of the PACE program.
The governor praised the efforts to bring this legislation to fruition:
By offering another method of financing for energy efficiency projects, PACE will help Delaware further our goals to improve economic development, lower energy costs and reduce greenhouse emissions.
PACENation, the national organization that advocates for PACE, reports that since 2009 more than $688 million has been invested in clean energy projects nationwide. They estimate that PACE projects have created 10,300 jobs, generated more than 6.3 million mWh of energy savings, and reduced CO2 emissions by more than 3.1 million metric tons (the equivalent of taking 657,000 cars off the road for one year.)
Tony DePrima, executive director of the DESEU said the next step in the process is designing the program. He hopes to have it up and running by the first quarter of 2019.
Sponsor of the bill in the House, State Representative Trey Paradee, praised the potential economic benefits of the legislation:
Delaware’s C-PACE legislation gives our counties a new tool to boost economic development and job growth. More clean energy projects in Delaware means lower energy bills for our businesses, more work for our local contractors, and more jobs in the clean energy sector.