PACE legislation helps implement solar technologies

The upfront cost of residential efficiency improvements, including solar installations, is the greatest roadblock to the average home owner installing solar.

Imagine being able to roll the cost of improving your home’s energy efficiency into your property tax and pay the cost over a ten year period. Stop imagining, that is exactly what PACE can do.

Property assessed clean energy”—or PACE—bond financing overcomes the biggest barrier to energy efficiency and clean energy investment: the up-front cost. The concept behind PACE is to make bond funding available for residential efficiency improvements and solar installations.

The bond financing is then repaid over time through the investing residents’ property tax bills. Residents benefit by having a lower total cost of home ownership immediately. The State benefits with an increase in efficiency and clean energy. And the economy benefits from having steady growth in high-tech, clean energy, and efficiency jobs.”

Imagine if you had to pay the $2400 cost of a two year contract up front for a cell phone. It’s the same thing for home owners wanting to install solar. Remove the upfront cost and we will have broader residential participation in alternate energy. If 1 percent of our residences go solar, it will create over 600 construction industry jobs.

This isn’t only good for home owners. Commercial buildings can benefit too because with the cost of energy improvements rolled into the property tax, the cost of the improvements go with the property when it is sold and an energy efficient building has more value when it is sold.

House Bill 2643 is the enabling legislation that will make PACE possible. The bill is in trouble because in this budget crisis, any bill that contains any kind of funding is being rejected even if repayment is guaranteed. Submit your testimony in support of HB2643.

PACE is a key element in the State initiative to have 30 percent of our energy needs generated by alternate energy. A third of our energy is used by buildings. Our construction industry is in a depression. Nationally, nearly a quarter of construction workers are unemployed. The State Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism reports: “Construction was one of the major contributors to job growth in Hawaii in recent years. From 2002 to 2007, construction job growth averaged 8.0 percent per year. However, since 2007, construction jobs have declined, culminating in a 13.2 percent fall in jobs for 2009 as a whole. This was the highest rate of job loss among the major industries for 2009. From a high of 40,000 jobs in the fourth quarter of 2007, jobs have fallen to 31,950 in the fourth quarter of 2009, or more than 8,000 jobs.”

Solar can address both the lack of jobs and our dependence on oil. HB2643 will make PACE possible.

The Senate Committee on Energy passed HB2643 on March 11 and will next have to be scheduled to be heard by the Senate Committee on Ways and Means.