A PACE Enabled World

The climate is changing, the environment is deteriorating—and Americans are paying the price.

Explore the environmental risks faced by communities across the country, and learn how PACE financing can help by building a more resilient, prosperous, and sustainable future.

The Price of a Changing Climate

Throughout the United States, communities struggle with increasing energy costs, insurance premiums, and frequency of extreme weather events that result in billions of dollars of property damage and repair costs every year.

Despite a recent groundswell of new political support for environmentally conscious initiatives–including the Green New Deal, which makes an ambitious yet largely unreachable call-to-action—sustainability and resiliency upgrades to protect homes and families remain limited and inaccessible for average Americans.

Understanding the Context of Increased Risk

Increased Risk

The total cost of extreme weather events could reach over

$4 trillion by 2050

While many debate the cause of the record number of wildfires, wind storms, hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, and other damaging events, there is no question that the country is struggling to help property owners protect themselves and get them back on their feet after devastation.

Environmental-related disasters have cost Americans over

$1 trillion since 1980

Since 1980, environmental-related disasters have cost Americans over $1 trillion, according to NOAA research.

This increased risk directly impacts the insurance industry. As a result, the average home insurance rate has risen by 50 percent over the past 10 years alone.

Need For Private Capital: PACE Financing is Part of the Solution

Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE)

Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) is an innovative public-private partnership model that makes residential and commercial property upgrades in natural disaster mitigation, renewable energy, and water efficiency financially accessible.

PACE property improvement projects:

Help protect homes and businesses from natural disasters;

Lower monthly insurance premiums and utility bills;

Create local jobs and drive economic growth in local communities; and

Contribute to shared sustainability goals.

Understanding PACE Investment

Since 2008, when PACE financing was first established in California, it has shown tremendous success in accomplishing what state policymakers, business leaders, and community members across the country set out to achieve.

Those goals were to overcome two of the biggest barriers local communities, cities, and counties faced in addressing climate change: the cost-barrier homeowners face when investing in clean energy and resiliency property upgrades; and how to unlock the billions of dollars of private capital needed to create healthier and safer communities.

PACE INVESTMENT AND CARBON EMISSION REDUCTION PROJECTIONS

Conservative, Baseline, and Aggressive projections assume an 8%, 15%, and 30% industry growth rate respectively. These projection assumptions are informed by prior year over year industry growth rates.

Understanding PACE Investment

Ygrene Energy Fund is the nation’s leading PACE administrator, financing property improvement projects in California, Florida, and, most recently, Missouri—the only three states where residential PACE financing is currently enabled through legislation.

Explore the environmental, economic, and societal benefits derived from Ygrene investments and imagine what a truly PACE enabled world would look like.


Since 2012, Ygrene has:

  • Financed +$1.75 billion in property improvements
  • Completed +73,000 projects
  • Become operational in +500 cities and counties
+$3.7B in
economic output +31K new jobs created +$1.15B in avoided disaster loss

Scaling for the Future

Nearly 4 out of 5 Americans face risk of disaster

As successful a public policy as it has been, PACE is just scratching the surface to meet the needs of creating a clean energy and resilient economy, built on healthier and safer communities across the country.

Research shows that extreme weather events have become more frequent and destructive over time. As such, there is an indisputable need for resiliency improvements across the United States.

According to the Environment America Research and Policy Center, between 2007 and 2012, nearly 4 out of 5 Americans lived in a county that was affected by weather-related disasters, representing approximately 243 million Americans.

Extreme weather has become more frequent and destructive

While many believe extreme weather events are isolated to at-risk states like Florida, California, Texas, and New York, the reality is that no state is safe. But within this context of increased risk, PACE financing is well-positioned to provide needed relief.

Extreme weather occurs throughout the country. Explore this risk on a state-by-state basis, and see how a PACE-enabled world can transform risk into opportunity.

A PACE-enabled future is a world with more jobs, a stronger economy, and decreased environmental impact from fossil fuels.

PACE is Working: The Environmental and Economic Impacts

Even within the next five years, PACE financing could generate significant impacts for communities across the country.

The American dream of homeownership is at risk.

With an increasing number of extreme weather events that lead to significant costs for local, state, and federal governments, as well as the citizens they serve, Americans must take on the challenge of making their homes and businesses safer and more resilient in the face of disaster.

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