My name is Mark Dougherty and I am with GI Energy. We are a developer of Energy Efficiency and Distributed Energy projects for Commercial market in the Northeast. We have been having discussions with numerous potential customers throughout NJ, mostly in the Hospital and Retirement Community markets, the Commercial Real Estate market, the Higher Education market and the Industrial market. PACE funding is a very attractive solution for most of the customers with whom we meet. Here are some reasons:
- Most of these customers do not have access to capital dollars through their traditional budget process to implement Sustainable Energy projects; so the projects continue to go un-done.
- This solution is helpful from a debt-capacity standpoint, as the funding mechanism allows for “off-balance-sheet” treatment. This is very important, especially in Government, Healthcare and Higher Education markets.
- The customers, as well as the state of NJ have goals for reducing buildings’ impact on the environment, so reducing emissions is needed, but not being done on a broad scale.T
My understanding is that some changes need to be made to the NJ enabling legislation in order for PACE to move forward in a way that would be acceptable for the facilities. We and our customers have not been pursuing discussions with local elected officials because we believe we need to wait until the revised legislation is approved. There is no point having the discussion with them yet.
Please keep me informed of updates to the legislation, as well as any thoughts you have regarding how to get PACE moving forward in NJ. This program will generate good projects, and jobs for NJ firms, in addition to reducing energy consumption and costs. I would be happy to help you move this forward in any way I can.
Thank you for your consideration.
Best Regards, Mark
Providing Sustainable Energy
Mark Dougherty BSME FACHE | Director of Business Development, GI Energy , One Penn Plaza, Suite 1410, New York, NY 10119
T: (917) 484-8511 M: (201) 359-4162
E: mdougherty@gienergyus.com
http://www.gienergyus.com Twitter: @gienergyus