IRVINE, CA—Twenty six cities and five counties across California launched the HERO Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) Program this week. HERO PACE financing enables homeowners to make energy- and water-efficiency improvements and pay for them over time through their property tax bill. Interest may be tax-deductible, and homeowners may see immediate savings on utility bills.

The HERO Program launched this week in the cities of Arcata, Camarillo, Chowchilla, Chula Vista, Fairfax, Firebaugh, Fowler, Hayward, Huron, Larkspur, Madera, Millbrae, Mission Viejo, Mountain View, Novato, Oakland, Patterson, Rohnert Park, Salinas, San Anselmo, San Rafael, Santa Cruz, Seaside, Tiburon, Trinidad and Union City, as well as the unincorporated areas of Del Norte, El Dorado, Humboldt, Marin and Tehama Counties. Residents of these municipalities may now submit applications for HERO financing.

HERO has helped fund residential efficiency projects in almost 47,000 households in California, totaling more than $1.08 billion in financing. By stimulating home renovation activity, the HERO Program increases demand for local contractor services. HERO is estimated to have spurred the creation of more than 9,100 jobs in California since beginning in December 2011. Cities and counties benefit through economic stimulus and local job growth while helping their communities reach state-imposed water and energy savings goals.

"HERO has clearly been a tremendous benefit in the Orange County communities where it is already available," said Mission Viejo councilman Frank Ury. "The City Council feels it is important to leverage public-private partnerships to help tackle challenging issues like increasing water and energy efficiency."

As California's drought drags on, eligible retrofits give homeowners a fast, affordable way to conserve a desperately-needed resource. HERO has a wide variety of products to help homeowners save water, including high-efficiency toilets, faucets and showerheads; drip irrigation systems; rainwater catchment systems; gray water systems; and artificial turf and other drought-tolerant landscaping.

"We haven't gotten nearly as much rain as we used to in recent years," noted Humboldt County supervisor Estelle Fennell. "Even in our green area of the state, folks are tuning in to the importance of using water as efficiently as possible. HERO makes it easy for homeowners to find qualified contractors to install rain catchment systems or replace aging heat systems with more efficient models before winter hits in earnest. These improvements save money over time and can make your home a more comfortable place."

A wide variety of energy-saving products are available through HERO as well. Some of HERO's most popular products include including solar power panel installations, whole-home heating and cooling (HVAC) systems, energy-saving windows and doors, and roofing and insulation.

PACE has been adopted to address a problem conventional financing products have not solved. Each year, several million homes in the US will have systems replaced that affect energy or water consumption – such as HVAC systems, windows, roofs, and water heaters – in most cases because existing products are failing. Unfortunately, the majority of homeowners still select the least-efficient solution because homeowners are not sure how long they are going to stay in their home. As a result, the least-efficient solutions end up being the most expensive when taking into account the total cost of ownership when energy or water costs are factored in.

The HERO Program provides crucial new options to homeowners to choose more efficient improvements: PACE finances 100% of the home improvement, requiring no upfront cash outlay; the term of the financing is based on the useful life of the product, up to 20 years, lowering the size of monthly payments; and collection is conducted through regular property tax payments. The products installed must meet federal and state efficiency standards, enabling homeowners to lower monthly utility bills and help pay for the cost of the improvement over time.

PACE was also designed to help achieve public policy objectives. The $1.08 billion financed through HERO to date are projected to save $2 billion on energy bills, conserve 7.2 billion kWh of electricity, reduce emissions by 1.9 million tons (the equivalent of taking 370,700 SUVs off the road for a year), and save more than 2.5 billion gallons of water (the equivalent of 78 million showers). HERO has already generated a local economic impact of almost $1.9 billion in California.

PACE enables local governments to add additional requirements to protect consumers not found in other payment options like credit cards or home equity loans. For example, the HERO Program requires contractors to be licensed with the state and in good standing with HERO, homeowners to obtain all required permits, products and labor to meet fair pricing standards, homeowners to use products certified as efficient by the U.S. Department of Energy or water-conserving by the Environmental Protection Agency, and that payment only be made when the homeowner signs off that the job has been successfully completed.

The HERO Program has now been adopted by 362 communities in California, within 37 counties. HERO's success in California is part of a national trend, with PACE programs now enabled in more than 30 states.

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