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Below are soundbites from panelists at Infocast’s Solar Power Finance & Investment Summit from March 19th to 22nd in Carlsbad, CA.  It was an extremely well-attended event and the mood of the participants was generally upbeat.  Many people observed that there was more capital for projects under development or to buy operating portfolios than there was such supply of projects available to meet that demand.

The soundbites are edited for clarity and are organized by topic, rather than in chronological order.  They were prepared without the benefit of a transcript or recording.

Impact of Tax Reform on the Tax Equity Market

Impact of the Corporate Tax Rate Reduction on the Supply of Tax Equity, Yields and the Capital Stack

“This year we can do $9 million in tax credits; before we could do $15 million.”  [The implication is that a 21 percent federal corporate tax rate is 40 percent less than a 35 percent corporate tax rate, so the tax appetite has declined by 40 percent.]  Vice President, Industrial Bank

“The [supply side of the] tax equity market has declined by 40 percent; some tax equity investors are taking a pause.”  Vice President, Regional Bank

“Our bank this year is slightly below the billion dollars of tax equity it originated last year for its own book.” Vice President, Midwestern Bank

Some “mainstream tax equity investors have taken a pause [from investing] to figure out what the 21 percent corporate tax rate means for them.  It is an investors’ market, but we nervously see a sponsors’ market ahead.”  Managing Director, Financial Advisory Firm

Traditionally, rates for tax equity have been a function of supply and demand, but now we are seeing real pressure on rates.”  Managing Director, Money Center Bank

[It is difficult to jibe this banker’s quote regarding pressure on tax equity rates with the quotes above regarding the supply of the tax equity market being smaller due to tax reform.  Possibly, tax equity investors are agreeing to share some of the yield detriment of the depreciation being less valuable and that has resulted in reduced after-tax yields.]

“Some utilities that had tax appetite no longer have tax appetite and need to raise tax equity for their projects.”  Director, Money Center Bank

“We are trying to get back to the same all-in return where we were before tax reform.”  [As the depreciation is less valuable at a 21 percent tax rate than it was at a 35 percent tax rate, this means either (i) contributing less for the same 99 percent allocation of the investment tax credit or (ii) contributing the same amount and requiring a distribution of a larger share of the cash.]  Vice President, Midwestern Bank

“Tax reform helped us because it means tax equity contributes less to the project, so it makes our loan product more necessary.” General Manager Renewable Energy Finance, Small Business Bank

“The debt market has come in and is filling the decline in tax equity.” Executive Director, Manufacturing Corporation

“The buyouts of [tax equity investors’ post-flip interests] are more valuable because of the lower tax rate.”  Partner, Big 4 Firm

“We see sponsors’ financial returns over a 35-year project life increase due to the tax rate reduction.”  ” Managing Director, Structuring Advisory Firm Continue Reading Infocast’s 2018 Solar Power Finance & Investment Summit Soundbites

Pratt’s Energy Law Report has published our article 2018 and Onward: The Impact of Tax Reform on the Renewable Energy Market. We are pleased to be able to make a PDF version of the article available.  (The article starts on page 6 of the PDF).

The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 (H.R. 1892) (the “Act”) was enacted on February 9, 2018.  The Act is a two-year budget agreement that includes a number of provisions extending lapsed renewable energy-related tax credits; however, the Act does not change the amount or timing of the tax credits for utility scale wind or for solar.

The Act retroactively renews the tax credits for the so-called orphaned technologies that were left out of the 2015 extension for wind and solar, but for some of the orphaned technologies the tax credits are only available for projects that started construction prior to 2018; thus, limiting the tax planning opportunities, while rewarding bold developers that started construction in 2017 while the credits were lapsed.

Excise tax matters and energy related tax credits for homes, buildings, vehicles, nuclear power plants, Indian coal, biodiesel and biofuel are beyond the scope of this blog post. Continue Reading Bipartisan Budget Act Partially Reinstates Orphaned Energy Tax Credits

Today, the House voted 227 to 303 in favor of the tax reform bill agreed to by the conference committee.  No Democrats voted for the House bill, and 12 Republicans from high tax states voted against it.  The Senate is expected to vote later this evening to approve it; it is possible that the president could sign the bill as early as tomorrow.

The enacted legislation is expected to be identical to the bill approved by the conference committee.  Our analysis of the conference committee’s bill’s impact on the renewable energy market is below, which is followed by a chart that summarizes the relevant provisions in each of the three bills. Continue Reading House Passes Tax Reform & the Impact of Tax Reform on the Renewable Energy Market

The US tax reform bill that the Senate passed on December 2, 2017—along partisan lines in a 51 to 49 vote—is a mixed bag for the tax equity market. The bill is now headed to the conference committee, consisting of House of Representative and Senate leaders, to be reconciled with the tax reform bill passed by the House on November 16.

Below we describe the five differences from the House bill that are of greatest significance to the renewable energy tax equity market. (See also our prior analysis of the ramifications for the tax equity market of the House bill.)

Amounts of and Eligibility for Tax Credits

First, the amount of renewable energy tax credits available and the rules for qualifying for those credits are unchanged from current law under the Senate bill. Specifically, the inflation adjustment that applies to production tax credits is left in place and the “start of construction” rules are unchanged. The fact that the Senate bill left these provision alone is positive for wind and solar, which are in the midst of a phase-out, for wind, and a phase-down, for solar.

However, the Senate bill also left alone the lapsed tax credits for the “orphaned” renewable energy technologies that were inadvertently omitted from the 2015 extension that benefited wind and solar. The orphaned renewable energy technologies are fuel cells, geothermal, biomass, combined heat and power, landfill gas, small wind, solar illumination, tidal power and incremental hydroelectric.

Proponents of those technologies may have more negative views of the Senate bill. There is still discussion of the tax credits for the orphaned technologies being included in an “extenders bill” to possibly be taken up after the tax reform process is over. Continue Reading Senate’s Tax Bill’s Impact on the Tax Equity Market: Five Differences from the House Bill

Our article Proposed GOP Tax Reform Would Curtail Tax Incentives for Wind and Solar is available from North American WindPower (no subscription required).  The article includes a discussion of the politics of the Senate passing tax reform and a discussion of market implications; however, the discussion of the specific changes to the Internal Revenue Code is similar to our blog post GOP Tax Bill Proposes Changes to the Renewable Energy Industry’s Tax Incentives of November 4.

On Thursday, November 2, Republicans in the US House of Representatives released their proposed tax reform legislation, providing for massive alterations to tax law. The proposed legislation would trim tax benefits applicable to the wind and solar industries, while broadening the scope of the application of the “orphaned” energy tax credit. Further, it would eliminate the tax credit for electric vehicles starting in 2018. The proposed legislation is subject to further amendments and may not be enacted into final legislation.

Continuity of Construction. Pursuant to current law, the production tax credit (PTC) and investment tax credit (ITC) phase out over time, with the level of credit for which a renewable energy project qualifies being based on when the project began construction relative to various deadlines that determine the level of PTC or ITC. Under the proposed legislation, for any renewable energy project to qualify for a specific level of PTC or ITC, there would need to be continuous construction on such project from the deadline for the specific PTC or ITC level through the date the project is placed in service.

The concept of continuous construction does not exist in the current PTC and ITC provisions of the Tax Code. It was adopted by the IRS as an administrative matter in Notice 2013-29. However, the IRS later, under Notice 2016-31, created a safe harbor to enable projects to avoid application of the IRS’s “continuity” requirement. To qualify for the safe harbor, a project must be placed in service within four calendar years after the end of the calendar year in which construction began. The proposed legislation would effectively codify the continuity requirement and eliminate the safe harbor. Further, these changes appear to apply to all projects that have not been placed in service as of the date of enactment of the proposed legislation, regardless of whether construction of such projects began before enactment. Continue Reading GOP Tax Bill Proposes Changes to the Renewable Energy Industry’s Tax Incentives

The full text of the article is below or it is available at Solar Industry Magazine:

The solar industry has undergone a tremendous evolution in the course of the last decade. Below we outline some of the more notable developments, with a focus on project financing in the U.S.

In 2007, the largest solar photovoltaic project in the world was an 11 MW project in Portugal, called Serpa, that cost EUR 58 million to build. Today, the largest solar PV project in the world is Tengger Desert Solar Park in China and is 1,500 MW, or more than 100 times the capacity of Serpa, and the cost of building a solar project is a fraction of what it was a decade ago.

In 2007, manufacturers of thin-film solar and manufacturers of crystalline silicon solar were battling to see which would be the predominant technology. Today, there are more manufacturers of crystalline modules than thin film and more projects using crystalline modules than thin film; however, First Solar appears to have found success with rigid thin-film modules.

In 2007, terms like “resi,” “C&I,” “DG” and “community solar,” which are now ubiquitous in our industry, were unknown to most energy financiers. Continue Reading Solar Industry Magazine Publishes – A Decade of Evolution In U.S. Project Financing

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), a federally-owned laboratory that is funded through the U.S. Department of Energy, recently released a report titled Wind Energy Finance in the United States: Current Practice and Opportunities. The report provides a thorough overview of the capital sources and financing structures commonly used in wind energy finance. Below are quotes from the report that are of particular interest to tax equity market participants. We applaud the authors for writing a comprehensive report on a topic that is extremely technical.  Also, below we include comments clarifying certain tax or legal concepts referenced in particular quotes.

Wind Expansion in 2016

• By the end of 2016, cumulative U.S. wind generation capacity stood at 82.2 gigawatts (GW), expanding by 8.7 GW from 2015 installations levels. Wind energy added the most utility-scale electricity generation capacity to the U.S. grid in 2015 and the second most in 2016. Project investment in wind in the United States has averaged $13.6 billion annually since 2006 with a cumulative investment total of $149 billion over this time period. The investment activity demonstrates the persistent appeal of wind energy and its significant role in the overall market for electricity generation in the United States.

Future Outlook

• Looking ahead, the near-term outlook for wind energy reported previously suggests a continued need for capital availability at levels consistent with deployment seen in 2015 and 2016. The market has shown the capacity to finance projects at this level using current mechanisms at economically viable rates; however, increased deployment could necessitate new sources of capital. Broad changes to the financial industry—such as the possibility of major corporate tax reform, the currently scheduled phase out of the PTC and ITC for wind, and, specifically, a change in the role of tax equity—could fundamentally reshape the predominant mechanism for wind energy investment. It is possible that financing practices may need to evolve, while the growing body of wind energy deployment and operational experiences could help to attract new market participants.

PTC and Accelerated Tax Depreciation

• The United States Federal Government incentivizes renewable energy projects principally through the tax code. As of this writing, wind technologies are eligible to receive either the production tax credit (PTC) or the investment tax credit (ITC) (one or the other, but not both) as well as accelerated depreciation tax offsets through the Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System (MACRS).

The PTC

• The tax credit incentives (the PTC and ITC) provide an after-tax credit on tax liabilities (i.e., the taxes paid) and thus are often described as dollar-for-dollar tax incentives. As of this writing the PTC is currently worth $0.024 for every kWh generated over a 10-year period while the ITC is structured as a one-time credit valued at 30% of eligible system costs. For projects to claim the aforementioned full PTC or ITC values, however, the project is required to have begun construction prior to December 31, 2016. Projects that begin construction in 2017 through 2019 are available for a reduced-value PTC or ITC. Continue Reading NREL’s Wind Finance Report Highlights