SBI Sustainable Resource Network

According to a recent CNNMoney.com story, Congress is considering a further expansion of tax benefits for clean energy:

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)-December 19, 2008- Congress appears increasingly likely to expand tax benefits for renewable energy sources like wind and solar in an upcoming economic stimulus bill, say lobbyists and congressional aides. But for who, for how long, and under what conditions remain major question marks.

(Full story – By Martin Vaughan, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9244; martin.vaughan@ dowjones.com)

Congress approved an extension of the renewable energy tax credits as part of the bailout package passed in October 2008, but the crisis in the credit markets has meant that little additional financing has become available.

The collapse of the financial sector has hit wind and solar projects hard. Construction of solar and wind power relies on upfront financing from third- party investors, mostly large banks who buy the tax credits.

The financial crisis felled some renewable energy tax credit investors, like Wachovia Bank (WB), and left others in a loss position, so they won’t have a need for tax credits this year. That has meant investment dollars are scarce for projects completed in 2009.

In the wind energy sector, project developers will have to decide whether to take delivery of turbines and other components in 2009, which may have been ordered months ago.

“It’s a difficult situation,” said Joshua Magee, an analyst at market research firm Emerging Energy Research. “They’ll have to evaluate on a project-by-project basis whether they can sustain a delay, or whether they need to go forward according to their original schedule.”

According to the story,

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., this week announced he supports making renewable energy tax credits refundable.

The industry’s hope is that making the credits refundable will boost their value to the point that more high-tech companies and other non-financial firms will want to invest. “This would substantially lower the reliance on third-party financial investors,” said Magee.

With a refundable credit, it’s also possible that some developers could self- finance and cut the third-party investors out of the equation entirely. That would depend upon how any new legislation is written. One concern voiced by some congressional staff is whether removing the third-party investors would create opportunities for fraud and abuse.

Tax benefits from investing in clean energy projects are two-fold. There are the tax credit benefits, which for solar projects are worth 30% of initial investment costs, and for wind projects are tied to the number of kilowatt hours of electricity produced. But investors also become co-owners of equipment, which they can depreciate over a five-year period.

These depreciation tax benefits are particularly important in the wind energy sector. As U.S. demand for wind energy has grown in recent years, costs of turbines and equipment has also risen dramatically. That has made the value of depreciation benefits to investors roughly equal to the value they get from the tax credit itself, people affiliated with the industry say.

“The reality is the depreciation can be as important as the tax credit in terms of making the financing work,” said Greg Wetstone, senior director of governmental affairs at the American Wind Energy Association.

Understanding the availability of state and federal funding, tax credits, and other incentives is key to knowing where the renewable energy industry is going, and what the opportunities for emerging businesses are. Part of our role at SBI is to keep up to date on issues like this, and be able to point our clients to sources of information that can shorten the learning curve in terms of finding their role in the new economy.

- Jonathan Cloud, December 26, 2008 (Originally posted at the main SBI site here.)

September 11, 2007
12:00 – 1:00 p.m. EDT

People – Planet – and Profits is rapidly becoming the new mantra of the 21st century business person. Business leaders and managers are challenged as never before to address a myriad of issues that go far beyond the single profit motive. People issues ranging from worker health and safety, employee morale and engagement, as well as societal issues of entrenched poverty are rising to the fore as core business issues. Environmental issues affecting the entire planet, such as global warming threaten to affect the very survival of the planet and create an urgent call for action.

Given the enormous complexity and challenges before us, what can business managers and leaders do? Regardless of your role, function, position or company, what can you do? How can business leaders and managers create a better balance between the needs of people, the planet, and profit in both the short- and long-term?

As a step forward on the journey to a more sustainable world, an ever increasing number of organizations are beginning to move towards a new “sustainability” business paradigm – one that focuses on creating a better balance between social, environmental, and economic factors for short- and long-term performance. In more and more cases, businesses are adopting sustainability-related values, principles, strategies and practices.

Join this complimentary Webcast where we’ll discuss the findings from a recent global survey on Sustainability sponsored by the American Management Association, and conducted by the Human Resource Institute in collaboration with the Institute for Sustainable Enterprise at Fairleigh Dickinson University.

For an hour, you’ll explore:

• The significant gap between how much employees in companies personally care as compared to how much they think their companies care about sustainability-related issues

• The relationship between sustainability and company performance

• The twelve most widely used sustainability-related practices

• The business factors driving greater focus on sustainability, as well as factors hindering its progress, both today and as we look forward into the next ten years

• How the most sustainable companies create a foundation, traction and broad stakeholder engagement for sustainability

Presenters:

• Jeana Wirtenberg, President, Jeana Wirtenberg & Assoc. LLC; Co- Founder, Institute for Sustainable Enterprise, Fairleigh Dickinson University
• Jay Jamrog, Executive Director, Human Resource Institute/ Institute for Corporate Productivity
• Ed Reilly, CEO, American Management Association

Best practices from such sustainability leaders as:

• Ray Anderson, Chairman and Founder from Interface, Inc., and
• Govi Rao from Philips Lighting, and now CEO, LED Effects

(See attached Flyer: AMA Webcast Flyer)

REGISTRATION: (Reservations are required)
Meeting Number: 17587-00007
Tel: 1-800-262-9699
Register online: http://www.amanet.org/events/hri-sustainabilty/

Be sure to reference code XA51 when registering

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Welcome

This is a working site for several Sustainable Resource and Action Networks – for businesses and individuals; startup ventures and venture funds; agencies, communities and nongovernmental organizations – that are supporting the Sustainable Business Incubator. These networks overlap and intersect at several points; the goal is to provide our client companies with access to the right organizations and contacts for their purposes.

Portions of the site are intended to become free and open to the public, but some will be available to Advisory Board Members only. To become a member, please register and give us your information, and we’ll contact you regarding Board membership.

The site was developed in association with the Sustainable Business Incubator at Fairleigh Dickinson University, in Madison, NJ, and is part of the service work of the Institute for Sustainable Enterprise in the Silberman College of Business.