DETROIT — Two training sessions on funding energy-saving projects through PACE financing are coming to the Upper Peninsula.
The sessions will be held Monday, Nov. 2 and Tuesday, Nov. 3.
The Nov. 2 session will be held at the Copper Country Intermediate School District Service Center, 809 Hecla St., Hancock. Register here. The Nov. 3 session will be held at Marquette Commons, 112 S. Third St., Marquette. Both sessions run from 9 to 11 a.m. Register here.
The sessions are sponsored by Michgian Energy Options, the energy nonprofit with offices in Lansing and Marquette, along with the Ann Arbor-based Ecology Center, the Marquette Chamber of Commerce, the Western Upper Peninsula Planning and Development Region, and Detroit-based Lean & Green Michigan.
The training program will outline how communities can use the Property Assessed Clean Energy financing to drive economic development and enable easy, affordable financing for energy projects on commercial and industrial properties. Attendees will receive training, a manual with all the information needed to take advantage of PACE, and a light breakfast.
The free sessions are intended for city and county government staff who deal with economic and community development, Chamber of Commerce staff and leaders, MEDC staff, university extension staff, and leaders of independent economic development organizations.
For more information, contact Michael Larson at MLarson@michiganenergyoptions.org.
Lean & Green Michigan is also offering contractor training in PACE financing on Tuesday, Nov. 8 from 8 a.m. to noon at the Genesee County Administration Building in Flint. Attendees will receive four hours of training, a manual with all the information needed to use Lean & Green Michigan PACE financing, a USB drive with electronic copies of the training materials, breakfast, and an overview of Michigan Saves, Lean & Green Michigan’s contractor program partner. The cost is $150 per person. Register here.
Lean & Green Michigan also announced that Bloomfield Township had voted to join the PACE program, becoming the 21st local government to establish one.
Under PACE financing law, counties, cities and townships may form a PACE district that allows a property owner to use the property tax mechanism to finance energy improvements. The property owner voluntarily takes on a Special Assessment, which it pays off over as long as 20 years, as part of its property tax bill.
Since the PACE loan is a special assessment obligation, it is senior to any mortgage – and hence very secure for the lender. (Because of this, if the property owner has a preexisting mortgage, he or she must get the mortgage bank’s consent.) Also, up to 100 percent of the project’s cost can be covered under a PACE special assessment. And the PACE special assessment “runs with the land” – the owner can sell the property and the new owner simply picks up the payments (and energy savings), just as it begins to pay property tax.