The Alaska C-PACER program platform was designed through an extensive stakeholder effort that involved over 80 participants from numerous sectors, including real estate, banking, construction, and local government. The program design process was facilitated by the Alaska Energy Authority (AEA) and funded by the U.S. Department of Energy.
The enabling legislation for C-PACER (HB 80) was signed into law in August 2017 and codified at AS 29.55.100 – .165, which allows local governments to create and manage C-PACER programs. In 2017, AEA and the Governor’s office convened stakeholders and outside experts to discuss the implementation of C-PACER in Alaska. Because local administration of C-PACER could be expensive for many areas, consensus was reached among participating local governments, non-profit organizations, financial institutions, trade associations, and other stakeholders to work together toward uniform program parameters that local governments could adopt. This group (the “Advisory Group”) is open to relevant stakeholders interested in helping implement C-PACER in Alaska.
The Advisory Group includes representatives of local governments, state entities, lending institutions, non-profits, utilities, and private businesses. As an eligible government partner of the Advisory Group, AEA applied for and was awarded a competitive grant from the U.S. Department of Energy State Energy Program (DOE SEP) in 2018 to develop platform documents to assist local governments in creating a uniform C-PACER program statewide. In 2019, AEA hired a program design consultant, PACE Financial Servicing (PFS), to guide the development of the Alaska C-PACER administrative platform.
In the summer of 2020, AEA and PFS launched a webinar series to solicit feedback from the general public on C-PACER program design. Recordings of those webinars and their corresponding slides are available below. Incorporating input from the participants of this webinar series and the Advisory Group, AEA and PFS published the resultant Alaska C-PACER program platform in the fall of 2020. This platform is available as a resource to any eligible Alaska municipality wishing to establish a C-PACER program.