Santa Fe County N.M. launches PACE program
Santa Fe County is playing guinea pig for cities and counties in New Mexico to finance solar installations on homes and businesses.
In mid-June, the county will launch New Mexico’s first Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) program, which allows home owners and businesspeople to obtain loans for solar systems and repay them through property taxes. It’s a new approach to solar promotion gaining momentum nationwide, but Santa Fe County is the first in New Mexico to adopt it.
The county hopes to serve as a model for more localities statewide, said Economic Development Director Duncan Sill.
“We hope to develop templates for designing and administering the program that will be useful for other jurisdictions,” Sill said.
The county signed a $51,000 contract in April with Renewable Funding LLC – a California firm that helps administer PACE in other states – to design the local program. It will sign a second contract for the firm to manage PACE once it launches.
Brian Cassutt, local program manager for Renewable Funding, said he expects more to sign on.
Read the full story in the New Mexico Business Weekly.
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