Can We Have a Level Playing Field for Renewable Energy?

Here’s a terrific piece by Renewable Energy World’s Jennifer Runyon explaining the need for and status of changes in the way that clean energy projects are financed.   As it turns out, master limited partnerships (MLPs) and real estate investment trusts (REITs), vehicles that are integral to the financing of traditional energy projects, due to a quirk in the law, are not available to solar, wind, and their cousins. 

Several bills are making their way through the U.S. Congress that would put an end to the unfair imbalance here, but none has come up for a vote.  Here, Jennifer explains how Richard Kauffman, Senior Advisor to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy, who came out of the private sector, explains how such a move by Congress would dramatically reduce the cost of capital for large renewable energy projects, while simultaneously providing five other major benefits.

As always, this whole discussion goes back to the same old place: all we’re asking for is a level playing field.