$50,000 to San Francisco Property Owners!

Not in time for Christmas, but this is great new for San Francisco home owners. San Francisco property owners will be getting $150 million gift of green. Under "San Francisco Sustainable Financing Program", homeowners will have access to up to $50,000 apiece to install a variety of clean energy improvements. It's not free money, but the terms are agreeable: 20 years to pay, with bills attached to your property taxes.

And, no, this is not another unfunded mandate imposed on overburdened taxpayers. The $150 million will be privately funded, courtesy of an 18-month-old Oakland startup, Renewable Funding LLC, that specializes in such programs, utilizing a financial instrument it developed called Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) bonds.