We are honored that Recurve founder Matt Golden has been named to RoseRyan’s list of Top 25 Cleantech Movers and Shakers in Northern California. Matt joins the ranks among luminary figures such as Shai Agassi of Better Place, Elon Musk of Tesla, and KR Sridhar of Bloom Energy.
This is the second year in a row that Matt has been named to this illustrious list. For more, check out the full list here.
San Francisco is now offering residents up to $2000 for home energy improvements. Coupled with incentives from PG&E, that means you could qualify for up to $6,000 total. The program, called San Francisco Home Improvement and Performance Program (SFHip), works similarly to PG&E’s program – first, you have to get an energy audit; then you work with a qualified contractor to make the upgrades and demonstrate that you achieved 15% or more in energy savings.
The first 50 homes will receive double the incentive (normally $1,000), and the program is only open to 433 homes total.
A few days ago, Congress and President Obama passed legislation that extends federal tax credits for energy-saving upgrades another year. The tax credits were set to expire at the end of 2010 but have been extended until December 31, 2011. However, the incentive has been reduced to 10%, up to $500.
Included are provisions limiting window incentives to $200, oil and gas furnace and boiler incentives to $150-200, and water heater and wood heating system incentives to $300. As part of the legislation, Congress tightening the specifications for oil furnaces and boilers and gas boilers to 95% efficiency, up from the 90% efficiency in current credit.
With the new Home Energy Score, consumers will find out how their home compares with others and how much money they could save by adding insulation, sealing air leaks or doing other upgrades. Ten U.S. communities will test the score, similar to a miles-per-gallon label for cars, before it’s rolled out nationally next summer.
“Together, these programs will grow the home retrofit industry and help middle-class families save money and energy,” says Vice President Biden
The program is designed to encourage homeowners to make energy-saving upgrades and to jump-start the industry for home energy retrofits, Biden said in a statement. It will also include financing for homeowners (up to $25,000) and software that will let energy contractors give consumers the home efficiency equivalent of miles per gallon for cars.
PG&E has just announced an exciting new rebate program for energy efficiency.
Here’s how it works:
Here’s how you get the money:
Why Recurve?
Learn more here. Call (415) 728-9726 or click here to get started!
HOME STAR endorsements continue to grow, now includes U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Support continues to grow for the bipartisan Home Star Energy Retrofit Act of 2010, which passed the House of Representatives in May and now has 25 co-sponsors in the Senate. Meanwhile, the United States Chamber of Commerce has added its highly influential voice to the growing call for swift passage of the HOME STAR legislation; in a letter to Senate leaders on June 22, R. Bruce Josten, the Chamber’s Executive Vice President for Government Affairs, said:
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the world’s largest business federation representing the interests of more than three million businesses and organizations of every size, sector, and region, supports S. 3434, the “Home Star Energy Retrofit Act of 2010,” which would provide a solid framework for a worthwhile, incentive-based program that would create American jobs while saving energy.
The home retrofit industry is a uniquely American industry: the vast majority of windows, doors, and insulation for these retrofits are manufactured in the United States. Since 2006, this industry has been decimated, with more than 650,000 jobs lost. The incentives provided by S. 3434 would create good, living-wage jobs for American workers, while providing homeowners the ability to make a substantial dent in their overall energy costs.
The Chamber supports S. 3434 and hopes this important legislation is considered by the full Senate in the near term.
Visit www.efficiencyfirst.org/home-star to learn more about the proposed HOME STAR incentive program, and about how you can join the trade association Efficiency First and other national organizations in supporting this important legislation.
A free Webinar recording at www.utilityexchange.org/webinar/20100701 will help your shop get ready for HOME STAR’s performance-based GOLD STAR incentive with a road map to BPI accreditation.
PACE programs stalled by federal mortgage regulators
Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing programs across the country have been suspended following recent actions by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored corporations that back most home mortgages in the United States. The problem is that the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), which oversees Fannie and Freddie, doesn’t like the idea of PACE liens taking precedence over mortgages in foreclosure proceedings—despite the fact that energy improvements typically increase the value of a home, and the potential financial impact on the mortgage industry is comparatively small.
PACE programs, which allow property owners to pay for a wide range of energy improvements with loans attached to their property tax assessments, have been lauded as an innovative, transformative financing model for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. But in May, Fannie and Freddie started spreading the word among commercial lenders that properties with energy improvement liens that are senior to mortgage debt would not meet FHFA underwriting standards. The FHFA confirmed the new policy on July 6 when it issued guidelines that have effectively made it impossible for homeowners to get approval for mortgages on homes with pace liens attached. (A grandfather cause exempts PACE loans issued before July 6.)
That leaves homeowners and contractors caught in the crossfire as most PACE programs have stopped making loans, projects are being suspended, and $150 million in federal stimulus funding allocated to PACE financing is being diverted to other programs. However, at least one prominent PACE program—the Sonoma County Energy Independence Program (SCEIP) in Northern California—has announced that it will continue to issue energy improvement loans in defiance of federal mortgage regulators, “predicated on the SCEIP providing full and complete disclosure about program participation to any potential applicants and ensuring the public fully understands the consequences of participation.”
PACE advocates around the country are pushing for a judicial or legislative solution to the impasse. California Attorney General Jerry Brown has filed suit in United States District Court seeking reversal of the FHFA ruling, and on July 15, Rep. Mike Thompson and 29 other members of Congress introduced the PACE Assessment Protection Act of 2010, which would force Fannie and Freddie to adopt underwriting guidelines that support PACE lending. But for now at least, most homeowners will have to find other ways to finance energy improvement projects.
Discouraging news on the status of PACE financing began to leak out of Washington this holiday weekend with reports that the Obama administration has failed to persuade the Federal Housing Finance Agency to allow Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to accept mortgages on properties with PACE liens attached. Late Friday, PACE financing pioneer Cisco DeVries of California-based Renewable Funding circulated an e-mail message to PACE advocates stating that:
Unfortunately, the discussions between the Obama Administration and the FHFA have not been successful. DOE and the White House have informed us that the senior lien — regardless of how structured, accelerated, or insured — is not acceptable to the regulators. New guidance from Fannie and Freddie to this effect is due out soon. DOE has begun notifying ARRA grant recipients that they probably want to start moving their grant funds away from residential PACE.
A subsequent report in the New York Times confirmed that Cathy Zoi, the DOE’s Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, had contacted DeVries to say that “the administration needed to begin contingency planning on what to do with stimulus funding for PACE.” The Times also quoted Ben Pearlman, a county commissioner in Boulder, Colorado, who received a similar call from Secretary Zoi saying that “in light of the circumstances we should look at other ways of financing energy efficiency with the stimulus money.”
Although Fannie, Freddie and the FHFA have yet to issue formal guidelines regarding PACE liens, local governments across the country are freezing their property-assessed lending programs pending government action that would clear the way for PACE lending to resume.
Meanwhile, Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, and Rep. Henry Waxman, head of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, have sent a letter urging administration officials to “quickly identify, agree on and publish guidelines that would allow PACE financing programs to continue while ensuring that both taxpayer and private mortgage investments are protected.” And the Washington Post has cited an anonymous source within the Department of Energy saying that the DOE is “seeking protection for homeowners who have already taken on PACE financing.”
Minimal financial impact: Earlier on Friday, before these latest reports began to surface, the Times‘ Todd Woody posted a thought-provoking analysis suggesting that the potential liability related to PACE liens would be tiny:
Putting aside whether such liens are any different from the property tax assessments commonly used to finance municipal improvements, how big a potential liability would Fannie and Freddie face?
Not very big, according to an analysis by the California attorney general’s office.
In a June 22 letter to the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Fannie and Freddie, Ken Alex, a senior assistant attorney general, cited the example of a homeowner who obtains $15,000 in financing from a PACE program to pay for a solar array and energy efficiency upgrades.
With a 7 percent interest rate and a 20-year payback term, the annual assessment on the homeowner’s property tax bill would be about $1,500.
“At the time of foreclosure for failing to pay the mortgage, it is likely that at most, one PACE assessment of $1,500 would have achieved priority lien status,” Mr. Alex wrote.
“This exercise suggests that with a portfolio of Fannie/Freddie mortgages that have PACE liens, assuming a high foreclosure rate of 10 percent, PACE seniority would average $150 per home,” he added. “Using a more reasonable foreclosure rate of 5 percent, average PACE seniority per home would be a mere $75.”
Berkeley’s ME2 Program (Money for Energy Efficiency) program provides up to $5,000 in rebates to qualifying homeowners in single-family residences and duplexes. Rebates go up to $8,500 in conjunction with a PG&E program (PG&E’s Comprehensive Residential Retrofit Pilot Program).
How Does the ME2 Program Work?
When is the ME2 Program Available?
Sign up for a home energy audit now. The ME2 Program is taking applications for the lottery July 6 – 20, 2010. It’s likely the money will run out during these 2 weeks, but if it doesn’t, they’ll accept applications on a first come, first serve basis after the 20th. The PG&E Pilot Program will have money available for a longer timeframe.
Full details here: http://www.recurve.com/what-we-do/financing/berkeley1/
PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) financing programs are expanding rapidly throughout the country. By the end of the year, 11 counties in California alone will have a PACE program. According to industry expert and Recurve founder Matt Golden, that means 60% of Californians will be living in a PACE district.
As a reminder, a PACE bond is a bond where the proceeds are lent to commercial and residential property owners to finance energy retrofits (efficiency measures and small renewable energy systems) and who then repay their loans over 20 years via an annual assessment on their property tax bill. PACE bonds can be issued by municipal financing districts or finance companies and the proceeds can be typically used to retrofit both commercial and residential properties.
The advantages of PACE programs include significant job creation, reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, lower energy bills and substantially reduced upfront cost for energy improvements, increase in property value, improved return on investment, and many more.
A recent study by energy efficiency nonprofit Home Performance Resource Center found that more than 90 percent of caulking and insulation, among other efficiency materials, is made in the United States. This is an example of another way energy efficiency retrofits support job creation – not only through installation, but manufacturing too.