In January, the Jefferson City Council voted to allow residents to make improvements to the energy efficiency of their houses and businesses.
The Cole County Commission this week approved an ordinance that would allow residents in unincorporated parts of the county to get in on this program.
The Property Assessed Clean Energy Program (PACE) offers private property owners a low-cost option for making energy conservation and renewal energy upgrades to their property.
The PACE program will be governed by a Clean Energy Development Board.
The purpose of the PACE program is to eliminate the up-front cost of purchasing and installing energy efficiency and renewable energy improvements.
The program is voluntary and provides 100 percent of up-front costs for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects for residential and business properties.
Participating property owners may have up to 20 years for repayment through a special property tax assessment. This removes a number of barriers to property owners who may have an interest in upgrading their home or business property but wish to avoid debt, may not be able to afford the up-front costs or were uncertain how long they would remain on the property.
Through this action, property owners who wish to upgrade their property by making it energy efficient will have access to capital. Money provided through the board pays for up-front costs of the improvements and the repayment is made from savings resulting from reduced energy use.
Because the property improvement is repaid through a special property tax assessment, the repayment is an obligation of the current property owner. This means the repayment stays with the property and not the individual who initiated the property improvement.
In 2010, Missouri became the 24th state to adopt PACE legislation.