MINNEAPOLIS — “Everybody has a home in this movement.”
Bali Kumar, a clean energy innovator, is carving out his space in the growing clean energy financing sector — making sustainability projects a reality and inspiring and educating others along his journey.
Setting the PACE, financing the clean energy transition
Making a home in Minnesota
Bali Kumar is a charismatic and visionary leader whose journey is a testament to the transformative power of purpose-driven career choices. His academic background (from Brown University to the London School of Economics to Berkeley Law) is impressive and yet, it is only part of what makes Bali such an impactful leader.
His passion for making a positive impact on the world led him to a pivotal moment: an opportunity to finance clean energy infrastructure in Sub-Saharan Africa. “It was a better marriage of trying to do well and do good at the same time because I felt like all of my career had either been doing one or the other,” he said. This marked a paradigm shift for Bali.
Doing well, while doing good
His doing well while doing good philosophy eventually led him from his project in Sub-Saharan Africa to Michigan, where he took the helm of the Wayne County Land Bank and later collaborated with Andy Levin on proliferating a statewide PACE program, fusing business acumen, legal expertise and real estate savvy. Bali’s commitment to driving positive change didn’t stop there; it flourished in Minnesota as he assumed the role of Chief Operating Officer at the nationwide lender PACE Loan Group under the leadership of Rafi Golberstein.
Bali’s profound realization during his clean energy endeavors in Sub-Saharan Africa became his guiding light: the convergence of business, policy and impactful change. He discovered his ‘why’ and now dedicates his time to steering a course toward a future where business and societal well-being are inextricably linked. Bali’s inspiring journey embodies the essence of doing good while doing well and is an example of the clean energy transition’s ability to find a place for anyone wanting to do work with this movement.
Now a resident of the state, Bali is making an impact in his career and neighborhood, serving as chair of his neighborhood council and looking for a spot on a volleyball team. He has a great float serve if anyone has an open roster slot.
C-PACE in action
C-PACE (Commercial Property-Assessed Clean Energy) is low-cost, long-term financing that is repaid as a property tax assessment for a specified period (up to 30 years at around 8% interest in the current market). The key benefit to PACE is that it allows commercial property owners to invest in clean energy, and to earn an immediate positive cash flow. PACE often fills the gap between what the mortgage holder and other equity can fund.
PACE has been wildly successful in Minnesota helping to deliver energy improvements to industrial buildings, commercial buildings, nonprofits, multi-family housing units and senior care facilities, as well as, farming operations. Recently, the Four Seasons Hotel in downtown Minneapolis utilized PACE financing to close a $20 million gap that helped complete the project. This kind of high-profile use case is critical, Bali notes, as most people are completely unaware of what PACE is and does. He says PACE Loan Group is on an information campaign so more owners and builders can take advantage of the program.
“I think some people just think it [PACE] is complicated because they think they need to have solar panels on their buildings or they’re not a ‘clean energy kind of guy’ so they think it's not for them. I think some people immediately dismiss it without actually looking into it.” Bali Kumar, COO, Pace Loan Group
Why this work matters
C-PACE financing has been available in Minnesota since 2010, and CEEM has been crucial to the various subsequent amendments that allowed Minnesota to remain a top PACE state. Since its passing it has helped unlock millions in economic activity across the state.
Bali says, “Developing the vocabulary and talking day-to-day to folks who are the people making the decisions and convincing them to make this decision,” is an important part of his work, and reaching people where they are (instead of where you think they should be) currently on clean energy is how relationships are formed, and where progress can be made.
As Minnesota’s clean energy transition picks up speed — with the 2023 passage of the 100% Clean Energy by 2040 bill, along with the Inflation Reduction Act and its myriad investments and incentives — Bali’s work with PACE Loan Group is a critical tool to deploy clean energy and efficiency.
The future of PACE
Bali’s advocacy work around the program took center stage in 2024 when he testified at the Minnesota Legislature again about several small, but important updates to the program to help make Minnesota’s program competitive with other states.
The changes to the C-PACE program include increasing the maximum financing term to 30 years, increasing the loan to value limit to 30%, and adding building resiliency as an eligible financing measure. The changes bring Minnesota in line with national trends in C-PACE financing making it a more advantageous location to improve commercial building sustainability
through attractive financing and increased flexibility.
According to C-PACE Alliance, Minnesota ranked the 5th most invested state with C-PACE at $316 million cumulative funding by year end 2023. In Bali’s eyes, because C-PACE creates well-paying, local jobs, C-PACE really allows communities to “do well while doing good.”
“I’d like to use all of my waking hours focusing on driving some sort of impact, so we can all push in the direction we have to push, because we only have one Earth,” Bali says.
Finding a home in the clean energy transition
As a subject of CEEM’s ‘Energy Innovator’ series, Bali’s life story and role in the clean energy world is a perfect example of the ever-growing pie that is the opportunity that comes with our collective transition to a clean energy economy.
As of 2023, Minnesota was home to nearly 60,000 clean energy jobs. A vast majority of those jobs, some three-quarters are working in the energy efficiency sector. Probably some of them are even working on building the commercial properties that are taking advantage of C-PACE financing.
“I think everybody has a home in this movement. I think we need to just crack the egg from all sides in order to make the impact,” Bali says.
As decarbonization strategies expand, into our building sector, transportation, agriculture and heavy industry – the number of people required to help make sustainable choices and build the clean energy that will power our lives – is only expected to increase.
Minnesota is fortunate to have attracted top talent in clean energy financing by the name of Bali Kumar. Let’s hope we can continue to spread the word – that Minnesota is a great place to do business, to live, work and play – and to build your career in clean energy.