Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) Loans

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The Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy Loan (C-PACE) program provides commercial loans for businesses and nonprofits that want to invest in energy efficiency, renewable energy, and water conservation projects. 


The program allows commercial property owners to produce a new line of capital, create loans with up to 100% financing, and achieve a 20-year payback that can be cash flow positive from day one (the loans are paid back through a surcharge on the tax bill). Even more so, clean energy projects add to the value of the commercial asset and can improve tenant retention. 

Businesses with an interest in the program can call (443) 949-8505 or email info@md-pace.com. The PACE website also includes program guidelines that specify program costs and other key elements. Additional information about the program can be found on the Frederick County Office of Economic Development website and on the Frederick County, Maryland Business Toolbox fact sheet.

Eligible projects include work such as:

  • Solar, geothermal, wind, and other alternative energy systems
  • Water conservation devices not required by law
  • Any construction, renovation, or retrofit to reduce energy consumption, including high-efficiency lighting and building systems, HVAC upgrades, high-efficiency boilers, furnaces, hot water heating systems, and more.
  • All costs incurred by the qualifying improvements, including the cost of the energy audit, feasibility studies and reports, design, installation, construction, insurance, and loan closing costs.

PACE Success Story: Joe Richardson, Commercial Property Owner,  Bar-T Mountainside

"I see suchJ Richardson benefit for other businesses to invest in green technology, green infrastructure, and PACE really makes it possible."  Full interview

Bar-T's facilities provide outdoor education for schools, team building for company retreats, and a wedding venue. Joe worked with several local business owners, including John Spears of Sustainable Design Group and Brent Hollenbeck of TimberRock Advanced Energy, to design and construct CleanEnergy1a new high-efficiency building on the Bar-T Mountainside campus that utilizes state-of-the-art technology.

The projects, included in the Energy Master Plan, have an estimated environmental benefit of saving the equivalent of 7,956 gallons of gas or planting 13.77 acres of trees per year, and will be financed via PACE with a cost-effective interest rate. This project will be one of the first in the country to combine efficiency, generation, grid resiliency, and energy management technologies at a single location without out-of-pocket expenses and with savings from day one.