Solar and wind scammers are bitter that a part of the tax code known as the BEAT provision prevents them grabbing as much taxpayer money as they’d like.

In some contexts, the proponents of solar and wind power hold them up as the inevitable wave of the future, enjoying amazing breakthroughs that only Luddites could ignore. Yet, whenever policymakers tinker with tax credits for renewables, their supporters warn the public that these energy sources are not ready for prime-time. We see this in the recent alarm in the renewables community concerning the Senate tax bill.

As explained in this article from Greentech Media, an obscure provision called the Base Erosion Anti-Abuse Tax (BEAT) threatened the ability of investors in renewables projects to minimize their income taxes as much as the credits initially implied.

For our purposes, the precise details of the BEAT provision are not important. What I do want to highlight is the frank admission of the people quoted in the article:

Tax equity is the renewable energy market’s “core financing tool,” said Keith Martin, a transactional lawyer at Norton Rose Fulbright who specializes in tax and project finance. It makes up 50 to 60 percent of the funds for an average wind farm and 40 to 50 percent of funds for the average solar project. [Bold added.]

Read more:

http://naturalgasnow.org/solar-wind-scammers-need-subsidies-beat-natural-gas/