Read our report on public developers here. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) have greatly expanded the reach of the public financing of renewable energy through tax credits and public lending programs. The goal of these policies is to help reduce the cost of capital for energy projects by utilizing the […]

Revolving Loan Funds (RLFs) allow governments to speed up and reduce the costs of socially important investments by providing critical pieces of finance that private capital markets are unable to supply at an acceptable rate, while receiving sufficient enough returns to be self-sustaining. RLFs have a crucial role to play in accelerating the energy transition and catalyzing the potential of the Inflation Reduction Acts (IRAs) provisions to enable a greater public role in the energy sector. 

There are many barriers to housing construction that need to be addressed on the path to a resilient and affordable housing market, from zoning to construction codes to subsidy programs. But the core economic trap, which leaves housing stuck in the depths of the business cycles, needs something else. A national construction financing fund could smooth the investment cycle, and help build millions of homes.

Creating a new DER deployment strategy requires policy makers rethink their financing by using VPPs to turn DERs into public resources. This report shows how green banks—mission-driven public lenders—can help enable such a shift using tools already present in the Inflation Reduction Act.

Augmenting the “SEFI Carveout”: How Special Purpose Vehicles Can Facilitate Large Project Pipelines

A Model RFI for Engagement and Collaboration with the Loan Programs Office

The CPE Elective Pay Model is a tool developed in-house to help understand the financial considerations public utilities and other public agencies might face when making an elective pay investment in clean energy assets. Included here is report detailing the model, its assumptions, and results, a simulator tool (below) comparing tradeoff scenarios for the primary clean energy tax credits (Investment Tax Credit and Production Tax Credit), and the financial model itself.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has created a situation where it may be difficult in the near term for domestic supply of petroleum products to match domestic demand. This has led to record high gasoline prices. The use of strategic petroleum reserves has proved insufficient to bring supply up to the level of demand. But the other side, the demand for petroleum products, has not been directly addressed. 

The past month has seen a flurry of new power purchasing agreements (PPAs) between big tech and nuclear power companies—reviving the fortunes of a sector that had been struggling since the high-profile cancellation of Nuscale’s commercial pilot with Utah’s utilities and the cost overruns at Vogtle 3. Tech companies believe that they can gain major […]

What happens to electricity prices when variable resources (VREs) like solar and wind become the grid’s dominant source of energy? Energy modelers have ideas, but no clear answers. Wind and solar are relatively unique compared to nuclear, gas, and coal systems because, despite having some upfront capital costs, they do not have fuel costs. This […]

The Senate’s near-unanimous 88-2 passage of the ADVANCE Act to speed the permitting of the new nuclear reactors is a bipartisan victory for energy policy. Yet, while the Federal government deploys massive resources to support new nuclear—including a generous tax credit and low-cost loans—and tries to streamline the surrounding administrative process through this new law, […]

How Tax Credit “Chaining” Expands the Reach of the IRA Through Greater Public Participation in Project Development Download this brief as a PDF here. The Department of Treasury is soliciting comments on final rules regarding tax credit chaining. Tax credit chaining allows public and nonprofit entities to purchase tax credits and monetize them through the […]

This post is republished from the April 2024 installment of our Capacity Factor newsletter. Subscribe here. The Department of Energy (DOE) released another commercial liftoff report, this time focused on enhanced geothermal energy. While all of their reports are excellent, this one features a wonderful discussion of how the changing grid shapes the price of geothermal […]

We’re excited to announce that Center for Public Enterprise will be partnering with Economic Security Project to provide technical assistance on the use of public financing tools for clean energy investments.