First Rooftop Solar Project Financed Through Montgomery County’s C-PACE Program Now Installed

For Immediate Release: Wednesday, March 6, 2019

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The first solar energy system on a commercial property rooftop financed by Montgomery County’s Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE) financing program has been installed on a seven-story building in Rockville. The innovative financing tool enabled the owners of the building at 451 Hungerford Drive to construct a 75-kilowatt solar energy system, along with other energy efficiency improvements.

The C-PACE program is a public-private partnership whereby private lenders provide financing for energy efficiency projects in commercial properties. The local government collects loan repayment as a surcharge on the property tax bill. Montgomery County established its C-PACE program to assist commercial, multifamily, industrial and nonprofit building owners in financing energy efficient and renewable energy upgrades.

Montgomery was the first county in Maryland to enact a C-PACE ordinance and is home to Maryland’s first completed C-PACE project. The C-PACE program, launched in 2016, is jointly managed by the County’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and its Department of Finance.

“We are pleased that the C-PACE program is helping Montgomery County achieve its energy efficiency goals while simultaneously improving the lives of its residents,” said DEP Director Adam Ortiz. “Through this program, the County continues to lead by example, showing how the nexus of private and public sector support can improve local communities and support local businesses.”

Keith Derrington, president of Rockville-based Recurrent Innovative Solutions, LLC, the contractor for the project, said “We updated the building with a state-of-the-art building automation system that allows for the dynamic optimization of the building in real time, plus high-efficiency LED lighting and rooftop solar to achieve a cash flow positive project through the C-PACE program.”

The energy improvements are projected to reduce the building’s electricity and water consumption by almost half, saving more than $160,000 in energy and maintenance costs annually. The project also will reduce energy use by approximately 2,300 million British Thermal Units (MMBTU), generate nearly 100,000 kWh of solar energy and save more than 750,000 gallons of water annually.

“This was our second C-PACE project in the County, and it ran even more smoothly than the first project,” said Rob Eisinger, a principal with Promark Partners, which represents the building owner. “We were able to utilize the C-PACE program to replace older building system components that had become energy inefficient, and in doing so, complemented the addition of a full building automation system. We are excited to be the first commercial building owner in the County to utilize the C-PACE program for solar energy, adding bifacial solar panels on the building’s roof. We are looking forward to reduced operating and maintenance costs going forward and are proud that this 40-year-old building is now ENERGY STAR certified.”

To date, the County’s C-PACE program has brought more than $8.4M in private capital to improve the County’s private building stock. These projects are expected to save 11,296 million British Thermal Units of energy annually—equivalent to taking more than 200 cars off the road each year—and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 980 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MTCO2e) annually.

Recurrent Innovative Solutions, LLC worked with Promark Partners to identify the upgrades and was responsible for managing and completing the project.

Through a competitive process, the County selected PACE Financial Servicing to administer the C-PACE program and Greenworks Lending as the County’s designated lender.

For more information on the Montgomery County C-PACE program, visit www.mc-pace.com.

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Release ID: 19-075
Media Contact: Lindsey Shaw 240-447-2917