c-pace municipality FAQs

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c-pace municipality FAQs

C-PACE FAQs for Communities

How do towns opt into the C-PACE program?

For municipalities to opt into C-PACE, their legislative body must first pass a resolution to empower the municipality’s chief executive officer to sign an agreement with the Connecticut Green Bank. The second step is for the municipality’s chief executive officer to sign this agreement, pursuant to which the municipality agrees to assign, benefit assessments to the Green Bank.

How is the program marketed to building owners? Do towns receive support?

The Green Bank works with participating municipalities to market to building owners. The Green Bank provides municipalities with materials, including (1) market data on eligible buildings in their town; (2) marketing materials; and (3) sample text to send to owners, media outlets or other relevant stakeholders.

What are the risks to the municipality?

A municipality is responsible for recording the benefit assessment.

By opting in does the municipality need to create its own program locally?

The municipality does not need to create its own program locally by opting into the statewide C-PACE Program. As statewide administrator, the Connecticut Green Bank administers the program, whose duties include: 1) establishing program guidelines governing terms and conditions for facilitating financing to pay for energy conservation measures in commercial and industrial-type facilities; 2) receiving applications from building owners and approving them based upon eligibility requirements dictated in the program guidelines; and 3) providing an annual report to the municipality on projects that have executed a finance agreement, C-PACE project payment status for partially and fully paid by building owners, and total benefit assessments paid to the Green Bank in the prior year.

Does the municipality need to provide project financing to building owners?

The Green Bank is responsible for facilitating financing for energy-saving projects and consistently strives to grow an open market whereby private capital providers supply the funding to fund projects through C-PACE. The building owner would enter into a financing agreement with the Green Bank, and not with the municipality in which the building is located. At no time would the municipality be required to provide its own capital contribution to C-PACE projects.