The looming expiry of an important incentive program in the US has the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) concerned about the future of commercial scale solar power in the nation.
After the 2009 financial crisis, part of the US federal government’s Recovery and Reinvestment Act was a scheme which offered owners of commercial properties with installed solar energy systems a 30 percent grant in lieu of tax credits.
The "1603 Treasury Grant Program" (TGP) eliminated the need to secure scarce tax equity to finance a commercial solar projects. According to the SEIA, this stimulus program led to a direct uptake of solar energy in America, the installation of 1,118 commercial scale solar energy systems, and the ongoing support of roughly 20,000 jobs in the American renewable energy industry.
The Treasury Grant Program is due to expire at the end of the year. The SEIA is calling on Congress to extend the scheme until at least 2012. As it stands, applicants are eligible for the Treasury grant only if they commence construction on projects by December 31, 2010 and complete construction by December 31, 2016.
Because of the continuing instability of the global economic conditions, "a big gap remains between the total amount of financing renewable energy developers need and what money is available."
Citing an August 2010 Obama Administration Report into the success of the Recovery Act, the SEIA found:
"The 1603 Payments-In-Lieu-Of-Tax-Credits program has supported more than 200 megawatts (MW) of solar projects that are already delivering solar power to consumers. These projects are deploying solar panels that generate affordable green power on the rooftops of thousands of homes across the country and in the fields of some of the largest industrial-sized solar generating facilities in the world."
The Solar Energy Industries Association is the national trade association of the U.S. solar energy industry and has over 1000 member companies.
