A blog on using the power of Disruptive Business Models to build successful businesses...and other stuff. by Joe Agliozzo

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Grants instead of Tax Credits - Boom?

The new stimulus bill apparently will provide for government grants to replace the current tax credit scheme. On the surface this should solve a lot of problems, since as everyone knows there is a lack of investors with tax credit appetites. Couple of interesting wrinkles though (as I understand it):

1. must place in service in 2009 or 2010 - so long term projects are out of luck (like utility scale solar)
2. must be a tax paying entity to use (so non-profits, schools, etc. would still seem to need a third party ownership structure to facilitate)

Will be interesting to see what the regs that actually implement the legislation look like and how long this will take. Could affect project/construction finance if the grant check is going to take a long time to process, for example.

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