Competition for financing for US renewable energy projects will become fiercer following the expiration of the cash grant programme, but its absence will see alternative financing mechanisms take hold and new tax equity investors courted, financing experts said.

The Section 1603 Treasury grant programme expired on 31 December after an effort to include an extension in must-pass legislation failed.

“A lot of people would prefer to have the 1603, but it’s not the end of the world,” Nancy Pfund, managing director of San Francisco-based venture capital firm DBL Investors, told Environmental Finance. “There’s a very compelling Plan B.”

via Environmental Finance | News | Expiry of US grant programme to spur innovative renewables financing, say experts.