Sustainable energy loan program requires update

Aldermen have moved forward a resolution for a required update of a sustainable energy loan program.

KINGSTON, N.Y. » Aldermen have moved forward a resolution to update a sustainable energy loan program that allows city residents and businesses to put the cost of certain projects on their tax bills.

Julie Noble, the city’s environmental education and sustainability coordinator, told the Common Council’s Laws and Rules Committee earlier this month the sustainable energy loan program was created in Kingston through a local law adopted by aldermen in 2015. She said the program, called Property Assessed Clean Energy, or PACE, is administered locally and through the Energy Improvement Corporation, of which the city is a member.

Recently, though, the program was updated by the state and the city must adopt a new resolution amending the local law to continue using it, Noble said. The council would need to hold two “readings” of the local law before voting on its adoption, she said. Following the council’s approval, Mayor Steve Noble, her husband, would sign off on the modified municipal agreement and send it to the Energy Improvement Corporation, Julie Noble said.

“All municipalities that would like to proceed with the PACE option have to adopt the local law exactly as worded and also modify our municipal agreement with the Energy Improvement Corporation,” Noble said.

After hearing from Noble, the committee moved forward a resolution to amend the local law. The resolution will next go to the full council for its first reading on June 5.

The program allows property owners in the city who want to do energy efficiency improvements or renewable energy projects to put the cost of those projects on their tax bill, rather than financing them personally, according to Noble.

“That means if you decide to put solar on your house and you move five years later, then the cost of that project stays with the building as opposed to staying with you,” Noble said. She added that the program does not cost the city any money and that Kingston merely acts as a “passthrough” for the funding. As people pay their tax bill, part of that payment goes toward repaying the project cost, Noble said.

So far, though, only two property owners locally have taken advantage of the program, Noble said. The property at 466 Broadway used the program to put a solar array on the roof and the new

Bread Alone building in the neighboring town of Ulster also used it to finance a solar array, she said.

Ulster County and several other municipalities in the state offer the PACE program, Noble said.

Noble said changes to the program will make it a more viable option for property owners. She said, for instance, there previously was a 10 percent cap on the cost of projects,

meaning financing would only be offered for up to 10 percent of a property’s value. That has now been raised to 35 percent, Noble said.

Other changes now allow power generated from renewable energy systems to be used at other locations, not just at the project site, Noble said. She also said cost savings from projects can now be calculated over the life of them, rather than annually.

Noble also said the cost of the project is added to a property’s tax bill at the beginning of construction, rather than the end.