Stimulus Program for Renewable Energy Projects Up and Running

As you may recall, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Stimulus Bill), described in this earlier post included a variety of benefits for marine renewables developers, including the option to elect between tax credits (either a production tax credit or investment tax credit) and a cash grant.  The Department of Energy and Treasury have now announced that the program is up and running, and that applications will be accepted.

The program is for renewable energy projects that are under construction or that will soon be built. Specifically, Section 1603 of the Act’s tax title, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Tax Act, appropriates funds for payments to persons who place in service specified energy property 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 program will therefore potentially benefit those marine renewables projects where construction will begin between 2009 and 2010 and be completed by 2014, the applicable credit termination date for marine renewables.

For further guidance about the program, please review the following resources at our new Stimulus/Grants Resource Page.