Last week Katie and Tim attended the DC Sustainable Energy Utility office’s presentation on Discovering and Financing Energy-Saving Opportunities in Your Building. The facilitators of the forum were representatives from Urban Ingenuity, a DC based Financial Services Organization that “provides innovative solutions to develop and finance advanced energy projects, building retrofits, and state of the art clean energy infrastructure.” Urban Ingenuity focused on the Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing method, specifically its usage throughout the District of Columbia and the many opportunities for the program’s expansion.
Tim is already an expert on Maryland’s adoption of PACE (read more here!), but these Loraxians wanted to learn how DC’s more established program was operating and how it could apply to our current and future DC projects.
Eligibility remains the same across state borders- both new construction and existing buildings qualify, but it applies only to commercial (office, institutional, multifamily, industrial, or non-profit), with government and single-family residential projects excluded. Many case studies that are currently financing building upgrades with DC PACE were discussed, and the presenters noted that PACE funding has been used on a wide range of project sizes, from $100k up to $2 million.
PACE helps take the ever-present question of financially prioritizing sustainability out of the equation. With its proven benefits for both long and short term owners (think: increased property value, decreased utility bills and lower operations and maintenance costs) PACE allows them to stay relevant in today’s competitive market.
As many of our projects pursue rating system certifications, we were excited to learn that standard PACE improvements and upgrades align well with many of the rating systems requirements of LEED, IgCC, and several others, therefore streamlining the application process for the PACE assessors. But, note that the program is adaptable to assess projects independent of green building certifications.
Contractors interested in working on PACE projects must be registered with the program, but the process is very straightforward- simply fill out an application here.
If you think your project may qualify, or you want to learn more about DC PACE details, please contact Tim Barranco or Katie Stanford!