“PACE” stands for Property Assessed Clean Energy — and it’s motto is: “Lets make 2010 a year to bring the benefits of this dramatic breakthrough on solar energy to the local homeowners.”

The government should take measures to implement the concepts of solar energy, and if a wishlist had to be adopted this idea should top the list. Solar energy proves to be a winning solution and it’s beneficial in many ways. This plan can work if the opposition towards the upfront costs can be simplified and worked out. Since the time an official at Berkeley city hall came up with this foolproof idea this concept has always been supported. In fact, the White House has adopted this idea which has taken a couple of years to test and  it’s become an accepted reality now.

How can a plan like PACE be a winner?

A homeowner should be given an option to participate in this program which involves the installation of solar power generating system on his roof. The city or the organisers should introduce a revenue bond system so that homeowners do not need to pay the upfront cost in its entirety, but rather pay off the bonds over a period of 20 years. If their home for some reasons gets sold, there is no need to pay off the entire pending amount as the new owner can take over the payment as it comes under their property tax bill. In the view of this, the advantages keeps multiplying as it will drastically increase the local area employment, strengthen economy, reduce import of various resources and most importantly help promote a green eco-friendly environment.

Many cities have already implemented this idea and put it to action. Cities like Palm Desert in Sonoma County and Berkeley in Colorado’s Boulder County are to be named a few.

Out of all these efforts, there are some drawbacks — not much interest is shown from the elected leaders in the city or county levels and an initiative should be taken by them to show the common masses the right path.

All said and done, the year 2010 will sure have a lot of research and development undertaken for the betterment of the economy. The economy will regain and technological advancement will get soaring higher. We hope that this year would be the right time for the adoption of solar energy power systems.

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