28 By Josh Miller, CEO, KeyState Renewables For Community Banks, The Sun Also Rises Solar Tax Credit Investments NowMore Accessible For over a decade, large financial institutions like U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo, joined by Fortune 500 giants like Apple and Google, have been the dominant players in solar investment tax credits (ITCs). Driven by federal incentives, these companies have provided funding for the largest solar projects in the country, collecting healthy returns while raising their corporate profiles as environmental/social/governance (ESG) leaders. The benefits of solar ITCs are hard to ignore. Tax credit investors funding renewable energy projects can significantly offset their federal tax liability and recognize a meaningful annual GAAP earnings benefit. From 2005 to 2020, renewable energy tax credits have fueled the explosive growth of solar and wind power production nearly 18-fold. The recently passed Inflation Reduction Act is a transformational bill with provisions that will entice large numbers of mid-size businesses and community banks to deploy capital into renewable energy projects across the U.S. It extends solar ITCs for at least ten more years (until greenhouse gas emissions are reduced by 70%) and retroactively increases the ITC from 26% to 30%, effective Jan. 1, 2022. This extension and expansion of ITCs, along with other meaningful incentives included in the bill, will result in a significant increase in renewable energy projects developed and constructed over the next decade. Not all solar projects are created equally, and it is critical for a community bank to properly evaluate all aspects of a solar tax equity investment.
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