CohnReznick Capital Launches Updated US Renewable Energy Brief on Tax Equity Market

CohnReznick’s Renewable Energy Industry Practice and CohnReznick Capital are pleased to release the latest issue of our US Renewable Energy Brief, this time focusing on the constantly evolving tax equity market. To access the brief, please click here.

As summer comes to a close, the renewable energy tax equity market is in a healthy state with over 45 active providers of tax equity and new investors frequently coming to market. Furthermore, those that have been in the market for some time are becoming increasingly comfortable with evolving project risks. Over $11 billion in tax equity investments were raised or committed in 2016.

Written in collaboration with Clean Energy Pipeline, a leading independent source of news, data, and analytics of the sector, this brief interview key leaders and stakeholders in the industry to examine:

Download a PDF Version of the Report

•  Distributed Generation (DG) Projects: Distributed Generation (DG) projects often struggle to secure tax equity, even when DG projects have an investment grade sponsor and offtaker. Certain steps can be taken to de-risk projects and present sponsors with a clear evaluation process in order to make DG projects more attractive to investments.
• Merchant Projects: Projects in merchant markets such as the Texas panhandle are notoriously difficult to finance, but tax equity investors have found avenues to success if there is a hedge agreement in place that provides investors with some certainty on the project’s cash flow.
• Corporate Purchase Power Agreements (PPAs): The number of projects with corporate PPAs, where a corporate entity is the power offtaker rather than a traditional utility, is increasing significantly. Tax equity investors are very interested in financing corporate PPA projects, as long as several considerations are well explored, including offtaker rating, basis differential risk and rights to project collateral.

For more information on this report and other renewable energy issues, please contact:

Anton Cohen, Partner & National Director, Renewable Energy Industry, CohnReznick LLP.
Robert Sternthal, President & Founder, CohnReznick Capital
Nick Knapp, Principal & Managing Director, CohnReznick Capital
Conor McKenna, Principal & Managing Director, CohnReznick Capital

For any media inquiries, please contact: Tom Weirich, CohnReznick Capital