by Shane Henson — September 26, 2011—In an effort to ensure U.S. buildings become more energy efficient and reduce both energy use and cost, the Carbon War Room, an independent nonprofit founded by Sir Richard Branson that harnesses the power of entrepreneurs to unlock solutions to climate change, recently launched a new consortium that will unlock billions of dollars of investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies for U.S. commercial real estate. The consortium will work with cities to enable property owners to accept a voluntary tax assessment as a means of repaying upfront financing of energy efficiency and renewable energy.
According to the Carbon War Room, the newly created PACE Commercial Consortium (PCC) integrates the program management and engineering best practices of Lockheed Martin, the financial sophistication of Barclays Capital, and the pioneering insurance partnership of Energi and HannoverRe in an end-to-end solution administered by the team’s leader, Ygrene Energy Fund.
The announcement highlights an immediate potential market opportunity of $550 million in funding for the cities in Miami-Dade County, Florida that join the Green Corridor PACE district for investment in commercial and industrial real estate. This funding can generate up to $1.8 billion in economic activity in Miami-Dade County, experts say. The Consortium sees the additional potential for an initial $100 million market in the city of Sacramento, which will stimulate an additional $530 million in economic activity. The Consortium is confident these cities’ programs could stimulate $2.3 billion and more than 17,000 jobs in the combined cities.
“The PACE Commercial Consortium is the missing piece in the jigsaw puzzle for cities looking to implement green plans,” said Carbon War Room founder Sir Richard Branson. “The Carbon War Room has been working with its partners to solve this puzzle for over 18 months as part of our Green Capital Global Challenge operation. I’m thrilled by the news of this ground-breaking mechanism, and believe it will unlock a trillion dollar market for green retrofits, creating jobs and growth around the world. There is simply no other source of economic growth with these characteristics.”
Launched in 2010 at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, the Green Capital Global Challenge (GCGC) aims to mobilize billions of dollars of currently idle private capital into city-led energy efficiency initiatives.
Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) legislation enables property owners to accept a voluntary tax assessment as a means of repaying upfront financing of energy efficiency and renewable energy. The U.S. Business Council for Sustainable Development, a U.S. industry partner, has organized its building owner members to retrofit their properties and operations, as PACE financing becomes available.
The Green Corridor group of cities, initiated by the Town of Cutler Bay in Miami-Dade, Florida, and Sacramento are the first municipalities to sign contracts with the Consortium’s California-based PACE finance administrator, Ygrene Energy. Facilities managers in charge of buildings in these areas are advised to look into the Consortium’s program in order for their facilities to benefit from the energy-saving retrofits and renewable energy initiatives.
