Cash Grant for Solar Energy Products Terminus Redux

I know that you may have a heck of a time trying to give up with the jargon, and your Latin may be rusty since high school. One thing if for sure: the solar industry is hoping for a minor miracle that the cash grant program will be extended. The solar energy industry is still dependent on government incentives and the cash grant is the most effective of all of government support for the solar industry.  The naysayers will roll their eyes: “Handouts are for losers,” they grumble. Tell that to every other energy industry that have received generous support over the years. 

One lobbyist’s handout is another lobbyist’s support mechanism. The coal industry never objected to receiving $3.00 per ton tax credit in Maryland for coal mined in that state, although now there is a proposal to take away this subsidy. The coal industry its non sequitur “clean coal” rebranding doesn’t make the smog go away.

And so we are at the same place we were last year with looking to Congress to read the tea leaves: will they or won’t they. For the solar industry, the difference between a tax credit and the tax grant under 1603 is huge. A taxpayer needs taxable income to take advantage of the investment tax credit—not so the 1603 grant in lieu of the credit.  Last year, at this time, developers were accelerating plans to make sure that they got under the deadline for the taxable grant, which was set to expire last year.  At the very last minute, late last year, Congress extended the grant by one year.

When all hope was lost for an extension of the grant for another year, there now seems to be a small glimmer of hope for another one year extension.  We are in Washington, DC, so we should be better positioned to read the tea leaves this year. Last week, I went to “Solar Energy Focus 2011,” the conference for the regional chapter of the Solar Energy Industries Association. There were quote a number of people who should be in the know at the conference. They like everyone else in the solar industry can make a lot of educated guesses, but they readily admit that it is near impossible to predict with any certainty what will happen in the mad scramble in December.