by Shane Henson — April 23, 2012—The Town of Lantana recently approved the first-ever commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) program in the state of Florida through the state’s Florida Green Energy Works Program.
PACE is a local government initiative that allows property owners to finance energy efficiency measures and renewable energy projects for their homes and commercial buildings. Interested owners opt in to receive financing that is paid back with an assessment on their property taxes for up to 20 years. PACE spreads the cost of energy improvements such as weather sealing, insulation upgrades, more efficient heating and cooling systems, solar installations and the like over the expected life of the measures and allows the repayment obligation to transfer automatically, like other property assessments, to the next owner if the property is sold.
According to PACE’s managers, this program, which is available to other cities and counties statewide, creates clean energy solutions and new job opportunities.
So far, the Florida Green Energy Works Program is the only program to successfully develop and adopt this type of robust, open-market alternative for commercial property-owners to invest in and benefit from clean energy. Working through existing assessment repayment processes of local governments like the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser and Tax Collector reportedly makes repayment easy. The low risk associated with these investments results in low interest rates for every project. Better still, local governments interested in joining this program have the opportunity to do so, say managers within the Florida Green Energy Works Program.
Lantana says its introduction of this program is a commitment to affordable energy for property and business owners.
“We’ve made a big commitment to our community—residents, business and real estate owners—that we’re going to invest in ourselves, our future and new jobs,” said Lantana Mayor David J. Stewart, Chairman of the Lantana Energy Improvement District. “This program is an essential step to fulfill that commitment.”
