Commercial PACE Financing

Note: S.B. 273, enacted in March 2017, made several changes to the state's commercial PACE financing enabling legislation. The Governor's Office of Energy Development is currently revising the state's PACE program to implement these legislative changes.

Senate Bill 221 of 2013 authorizes local governments to adopt Commercial* Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE) financing programs. Senate Bill 273 of 2017 made several amendments to this program. C-PACE allows property owners to finance energy efficiency and renewable energy improvements on their properties through a special assessment on their property tax bill, which is repaid over a period of time not to exceed 20 years. 

While the program includes a measure of involvement from the local government, Utah's C-PACE program is administered statewide by the Office Energy Development (OED). OED is currently revising its program based on changes made by S.B. 273; older guidelines developed by OED can be found here.

To qualify as a voluntary assessment area, the owner of the property must provide:

• The written consent of each person or institution holding a lien on the property
• Evidence that there are no delinquent taxes, special assessments, or water or sewer charges on the property
• Evidence that the property is not subject to a trust deed or other lien on which there is a recorded notice of default, foreclosure, or delinquency that has not been cured, and 
• Evidence that there are no involuntary liens, including a lien on real property, or on the proceeds of a contract relating to real property, for services, labor, or materials furnished in connection with the construction or improvement of the property.

Renewable energy systems eligible for financing are limited to those up to 2 Megawatts (MW), and those above 2 MW serving load the the public utility does not already serve.

* The types of property eligible for C-PACE in Utah include property used for the following purposes: commercial, mining, agricultural, industrial, manufacturing, trade, professional, a private or public club, a lodge. Multifamily residential buildings with four or more rental units also qualifies.