ST. LOUIS, Missouri, March 14, 2019—Ygrene conducts several PACE trainings per year with the region’s premier minority contractors association, MOKAN, in addition to pre-apprenticeship workshops educating students on the burgeoning opportunities in clean energy and PACE financing for Set the PACE St. Louis. The City of St. Louis prioritizes inclusion and racial equity as guiding, organizational principles; and Set the PACE St. Louis carries these priorities forward through outreach to minority and woman contractors to participate in the program.
Today’s pre-apprentice workshop was the best class of candidates yet—they were very engaged and asked insightful questions centered around service to customers and how energy efficiency upgrades and renewable energy installations benefit homeowners and how they would work on their own properties. Cathy Evans and Byron DeLear explained how contractors utilize PACE in the marketplace and how it functions as an innovative financing solution that fills several gaps for homeowners.
Ygrene and PACE Serve Economically Underprivileged Communities
A 2016 study found that low-income communities spend a much higher share of their income on energy.[1] Further, “utility bills are the primary reason why people resort to payday loans, and play an outsized role in the perpetuation of poverty.”[2]
The rise of efficiency programs have expanded benefits of energy savings through retrofits, but for the most part, these programs have only been “accessible to people who can afford [the] upfront investment.”[3]
PACE solves the upfront cost problem and is not solely FICO-score or credit-based financing, but rather is treated as a special tax assessment that “runs with the land.” Consequently, PACE programs have provided opportunities—where few existed prior to PACE—for economically underprivileged property owners to access affordable, long-term financing for 100% of the total costs of critical property upgrades and improvements.
For example, in the City of St. Louis, the distribution of residential PACE projects with Set the PACE St. Louis is diversely represented throughout all city neighborhoods.
[4] Residential PACE creates a broader rate of adoption of energy technologies and allows for a “democratization” of the clean-energy revolution.
Earlier in today’s class, MOKAN President Yaphett El- Amin, taught students values from Les Brown, an inspirational and motivational speaker. Les Brown states in his speech “You Gotta Be Hungry,” and the ethos he instills prepares students to enter the marketplace and excel. I am very heartened by our opportunity to partner with MOKAN to help teach and lift up another class of pre-apprentices. The success stories keep rolling in and undoubtedly many will enter the field of home performance and clean energy.
- Ariel Drehobl and Lauren Ross, Lifting the High Energy Burden in America’s Largest Cities: How Energy Efficiency Can Improve Low Income and Underserved Communities (Washington, DC: ACEEE, 2016).
- Rob Levy and Joshua Sledge, A Complex Portrait: An Examination of Small-Dollar Credit Consumers (Chicago: CFSI, 2012).
- Michael Isaac Stein, “The Uneven Gains of Energy Efficiency,” Citylab, February 13,
2018, https://www.citylab.com/environment/2018/02/the-uneven-gains-of-energy-efficiency/552674 [4]”In May 2017, Set the PACE St. Louis launched Ygrene’s award-winning residential PACE program with Missouri as one of only three states in the U.S. currently operating residential PACE clean-energy programs. Homeowners throughout the City of St. Louis—in North and South City— have now taken advantage of this innovative financing tool.” https://www.prnewswire.com/news- releases/ygrene-city-of-st-louis-reach-major-milestone-for-national-energy-efficiency-and- renewable-program-300734227.html