Pennsylvania Executes one of the First Residential Energy Efficiency Loan Bundling Transactions

Posted on March 11, 2013 by Shari Shapiro

After long and diligent work, my own Commonwealth of Pennsylvania announced last week that it had successfully bundled 4,700 residential energy efficiency loans, and obtained $23 million in cash and $8.3 million in deferred payments, for a projected total of $31.3 million.  The press release is available here.

This is a holy grail of sorts.  People have been saying for years that energy efficiency loans should be able to be bundled and sold, a la mortgages and credit card loans. In theory, bundling the loans would allow private capital to invest in pools of energy efficiency loans, as opposed to individual projects, injecting more capital into the market for energy efficiency upgrades and lowering the interest rates.

Although it seemed like a workable idea, few before the Pennsylvania Treasury had accomplished it.  Energy efficiency loans were considered too weird, too complicated, too risky, etc. to be bundled.  Most critically, financial institutions mostly considered energy efficiency loans to be too risky because there was an insufficient amount of data on energy efficiency loan defaults.

In light of these issues, the Pennsylvania transaction still does not really recognize energy efficiency loans as a unique asset class.  By this I mean that the stream of income from the saved energy is not being recognized as part of the transaction.  As far as the investors are concerned, the loans could be for HVAC equipment or Manolo Blahniks, they are all just unsecured consumer loans.  In addition, Treasury still had to put up significant credit enhancements to make the loan pool desirable. 

In addition, the transaction took a long time and had high transaction costs.  A private entity probably would not have had the resources or perservernce needed to cross the finish line.  Future transactions will need to be more standardized, both with in terms of assets and documentation.

Nonetheless, the Pennsylvania transaction and the many lessons its staff learned along the way may be a very important step in accessing greater pools of capital for energy efficiency.   

 

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The Renewable Energy Tax Code Wilderness--Production, Investment and Grants OH MY!

Posted on February 8, 2010 by Shari Shapiro

I will make an admission.  I took tax in law school, and, it was the academic equivalent of having my left arm sawed off without anaesthesia.  Why? Mostly because things which should have been clear seemed hopelessly obscure.  Now I deal with advising clients on incentives available for sustainable projects, and the tax code and I have had to battle to a stalemate.  At least, I battle, and the tax code just sits there impentarably.

One of the features which is particularly difficicult is the relationship between 26 USC 45, which deals with tax credits for producing renewable energy (the "production tax credit" or PTC), 26 USC 48 which deals with tax credits for investing in renewable energy equipement (the "investment tax credit" or ITC) and the Renewable Energy Grant created by the ARRA.  All three of these relate to businesses which have installed renewable energy technologies, like solar, wind and geothermal.  It should be clear and easy to understand which ones apply to your business and what the incentive will be.  As with all things related to the tax code, however, it is not.

I am going to attempt to clear up some of the obscurity, but, as with all information on this blog, it is for informational purposes only, not legal advice; and you should consult your legal and financial advisor to provide you with proper advice for your business.

FEDERAL RENEWABLE ENERGY INCENTIVE CHART
Title Applies to Amount of Incentive
Production Tax Credit
  •  Wind
  • Biomass
  • Geothermal
  • Solar
  • Small Irrigation
  • Municipal solid waste
  • Hydropower
  • Marine and Hydrokinetic
  1.5 cents per kW of power generated at a qualified facility for the 10 years beginning on the date the facility was placed in service AND sold to an unrelated person during the taxable year
Investment Tax Credit
  •  Solar for heating, cooling, hot water, illumination or solar process heat
  • Fuel cell
  • Microturbine
  • Geothermal
  • Combined heat and power (cogeneration)
  • Small wind
  • Ground water thermal
  30% of the cost of the "energy property" for solar and small wind, 10% for geothermal and other renewable sources
Renewable Energy Grant  Applicable property under Section 45 or 48  10% or 30% of the basis of the property, depending on the type of property placed in service during 2009 or 2010 or after 2010 if construction began on the property during 2009 or 2010 and the property is placed in service by a certain date known as the credit termination date

The incentives are mutually exclusive--The PTC and the ITC cannot both be taken, and they can be swapped for the REG, but you cannot take the PTC/ITC and the REG.

In plain english, it appears that the PTC is designed for renewable energy sources where the power is designed to be sold to others as a Renewable Energy Credit, and the ITC is designed for renewable energy sources where the power is used on-site.  The Renewable Energy Grant allows companies which have invested in either type of renewable energy capacity to receive cash, as opposed to a tax credit, which is helpful particularly if the company has no tax liability or a tax loss. 

 There are some resources available to help you sort through this morass.  The DSIRE database has quick summaries of available state and federal incentives.  The Utah Clean Energy site has a nice summary of the renewable energy features of the ARRA.   The DOE site has a useful summary of renewable energy incentives for businesses as well.

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