PACE & Financing
- Melissa Stickel
- 4 days ago
- 4 min read
Presentations and insights related to project finance, implementation barriers, capital providers, and financing tools.
Energy projects often begin with a simple question: What should we build?
But in practice, the harder question is usually: How do we pay for it?
Across MEPS and MEI’s public resource archive, financing has been a recurring theme because project success depends on more than technical feasibility. Energy efficiency upgrades, renewable energy systems, resiliency improvements, adaptive reuse projects, industrial modernization, and building performance improvements all require capital structures that actually work.
That is where PACE and related financing tools become important.
Property Assessed Clean Energy, or PACE, provides an alternative way to finance energy efficiency and renewable energy-related projects. MEI describes PACE as a financing tool for projects that save energy and money, and notes that MEI serves as administrator for Show Me PACE, Set the PACE St. Louis, and the St. Louis County Missouri Energy Savings Program.
The resources below offer a starting point for understanding how PACE, project finance, capital providers, and implementation barriers fit into Missouri’s broader energy conversation.
PACE as a Project Finance Tool
PACE financing is different from a traditional loan. It uses private capital to finance eligible improvements, with repayment made through a property assessment.
That structure matters because it can help property owners finance energy efficiency, renewable energy, water conservation, and related building improvements without relying only on traditional debt or upfront cash.
MEI’s public PACE materials explain that PACE financing can offer no upfront costs, 20-year fixed-rate funding, no required payoff upon sale, and the ability to share costs and benefits with tenants.
Featured Public Resources
PACE in the MEPS Archive
The MEPS archive includes a dedicated 2024 session on PACE: Property Assessed Clean Energy, presented by Josh Campbell of Missouri Energy Initiative. The session explores how PACE supports energy efficiency and renewable energy projects in Missouri, making it one of the strongest archive resources for readers who need a practical introduction to the financing tool.
The presentation materials also summarize Missouri PACE activity, including commercial PACE financing totals, project examples, capital providers, and project-level benefits.
Featured MEPS Resource
Financing Energy Efficiency and Clean Energy Projects
PACE is part of a broader financing ecosystem.
Energy projects may also involve federal funding, grants, tax credits, utility incentives, local financing programs, and private capital. For property owners and developers, the challenge is often understanding how these tools fit together.
The MEPS archive includes a session on IRA and Federal Funding, which explores how federal funding from the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is shaping energy efficiency and clean energy projects across the Midwest.
That resource pairs well with PACE because many projects need layered funding. PACE may serve as one part of the capital stack, while federal incentives, grants, or utility programs help improve project economics.
Featured MEPS Resource
Capital Providers and Project Examples
PACE depends on capital providers.
A PACE program may authorize and administer the process, but private capital providers supply the financing that allows projects to move forward. That makes capital provider participation central to market growth.
The 2024 MEPS PACE presentation includes Missouri project examples and identifies capital providers involved in completed projects, including Enhanced Capital Finance, PACE Equity, and Imperial Ridge Capital Funding. It also highlights projects such as Grand Place in Kansas City, StorCo in St. Peters, and SpringHill Suites in Springfield.
These examples help show PACE as more than a policy concept. It is a financing tool being used in real projects with measurable energy, economic, and property-level benefits.
Featured MEPS Resource
Implementation Barriers Still Matter
Even when a project is eligible, financing can still be complicated.
Common barriers include:
Understanding how PACE fits into the capital stack
Educating property owners and developers
Coordinating with senior mortgage lenders
Securing lender consent
Identifying the right capital provider
Managing timelines for approval and closing
Explaining assessment-based repayment clearly
That is why educational resources matter. PACE is most effective when property owners, contractors, lenders, municipalities, and capital providers understand how the tool works before a project is already under pressure.
MEI’s public resources page on participating municipalities also frames PACE as a tool that supports community clean energy goals, job creation, and local economic development.
Featured Public Resources
PACE, Energy Efficiency, and Economic Development
PACE sits at the intersection of energy and economic development.
Energy efficiency projects can lower operating costs. Renewable energy systems can improve long-term cost stability. Building upgrades can support adaptive reuse, commercial reinvestment, and improved property performance.
MEI’s economic development page describes energy and economic development as closely connected and identifies PACE as one of the tools MEI has supported to advance energy-related jobs and investment in Missouri.
That makes PACE relevant not only to building owners, but also to municipalities, developers, lenders, economic development organizations, and contractors.
Featured Public Resources
Why These Resources Matter
Taken together, these resources show that financing is not a side issue in energy development.
It is often the deciding factor.
PACE touches several parts of the project lifecycle:
Identifying eligible improvements
Structuring project financing
Coordinating with lenders
Recruiting capital providers
Supporting municipal approval
Documenting energy or renewable benefits
Reducing upfront cost barriers
Supporting long-term repayment through the property
The archive also shows that financing education is just as important as financing availability. Developers, lenders, contractors, municipalities, and property owners all need clear information about how PACE works and where it fits.
Looking Ahead
As Missouri faces growing infrastructure needs, aging building stock, energy efficiency opportunities, adaptive reuse projects, and rising capital pressure, financing tools like PACE will remain part of the conversation.
The key question is no longer whether PACE can finance energy improvements.
It can.
The next question is how effectively Missouri can use PACE to support projects that might otherwise stall because of capital gaps, lender uncertainty, implementation friction, or upfront cost barriers.
The resources collected here help explain not only what PACE is, but how it works in the real world, where the barriers appear, and what stakeholders need to understand before projects can move forward.
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