The Ohio Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing is a dynamic and rapidly growing mechanism to finance energy efficiency and renewable energy projects in Ohio. Through PACE, special assessments are used to repay and secure upfront funding for improvements that save or generate energy.
PACE financing involves a public-private cooperation between property owner, a lender, the township and an energy special improvement district (ESID). The lender makes a loan to the property owner for the property owner to undertake certain energy efficiency projects. The loan can take a variety of forms, and the lender can either be a public or private entity.
PACE allows the township to levy special assessments on the property in installments sized to repay the loan and associated financing costs. The special assessments spread out the financing over the appropriate time and collected by the county with the rest of the property taxes and settled under the normal processes. The special assessment is then transferred to the lender to repay the loan as provided for in the financing documents.
The special assessments are tied to the land, rather than the property owner. So the special assessments can stay with the property upon conveyance.