The wait is over. The California Energy Commission announced Thursday that a $16.5 million grant would be awarded to the 14-county alternative energy financing program CaliforniaFIRST. The program, of which both the city and county of Santa Cruz are part of, will allow residents to use their homes as collateral in order to get loans for expensive alternative energy systems like solar panels and to pay for weatherization and efficiency upgrades. Instead of a traditional loan that takes into consideration a homeowner’s credit and home equity, these loans would be tied to the property itself and paid back over time through property taxes.
Loan rates for the program, which had initially been estimated at a gouging 9 percent interest, were also announced to have dropped to between 7 and 8 percent according to the Santa Cruz Sentinel.
The news is likely especially comforting to county planners who had said that if the highly competitive grant was not awarded to the program that they likely could not participate. Funds for the program come from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, better known as “the stimulus.”
The plan is estimated to be ready to dole out cash as early as June. Click here.html for a complete look at the CaliforniaFIRST program.
