Tax bill financing for efficiency and renewables passes Fla Legislature

A bill making it OK for local government to set up tax bill financing of small scale solar, wind, efficiency, and even hurricane hardening, passed the Legislature on the last day of the session.  The Senate took up HB 7179 passed earlier in the week in the House and passed the bill to allow local governments to create a volunteer program for homeowners and businesses to fund energy efficiency and renewable energy improvements.

The concept, first started in Berkeley California, is pretty simple.  Most people cannot make a huge investment in major renewable energy systems in their homes and businesses (or major efficiency investments for that matter) because of the heavy up-front cost.  They get trapped into the "payback period" concept where you figure out how many years it will take to recover your initial investment.  A better way of evaluating these improvements is through a "return on investment" model.  Property Assessed Clean Energy programs (PACE for short) allows a ROI model instead of payback.  So would a home equity loan, but here's the advantage with PACE - the loan rides with the property, not the owner.  Since these are often substantial permanent investments into the structure that provide benefits that stay with the property, it makes sense that the repayment of the loan stay with the property that is receiving the benefit.  With bank lending at a near standstill, this type of program will give local governments a tool to really boost local investments and job creation.  And property owners will have a new tool to help them make that final commitment to serous energy improvements.

Finally, a decent piece of energy legislation out of Florida.