Stephanie Simon of the WSJ provides an excellent overview of Boulder, Co.’s efforts to become a sustainable city. http://bit.ly/bmyOVM. Boulder has found that after undergoing an energy audit, people don’t make the changes recommended. The likely barrier? Cost.
One innovative idea to help owners pay for expensive energy reduction measures are Property Assessed Clean Energy Bonds (PACE). 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. For more information, go to http://www.pacenow.org.
