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Clean Renewable Energy Bonds

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IRS Announces Next Application Cycle for Clean Renewable Energy Bonds Program

Today, the IRS issued its long-awaited announcement soliciting applications for the 2008 round of Clean Renewable Energy Bonds (CREB) tax credit allocation.  This program will offer an additional $400 million in CREB financing authority.  The application deadline is July 13, 2007.  To see the IRS Notice announcing the CREB extension, click here. The IRS Bulletin also contains a complete application template for applying for a CREB allocation.

Clean Renewable Energy Bond Allocations Announced

On November 20, the Internal Revenue Service released summary information regarding the awarding of tax credit allocations for the Clean Renewable Energy Bonds (CREB) program. The program appears to have been a great success. Overall, there were 786 applicants from 40 states seeking a total of $2.5 billion in bond authorization (three times what was available). $2 billion of the requests came from governmental entities and $500 million from cooperatives.

610 projects were approved. The 532 governmental projects ranged in size from $23,000 to $3.2 million while the 78 REC projects ranged from $120,000 to $31 million. Governmental projects were funded in 22 states and REC projects in 24 states.

Of the governmental projects, 401 were solar photovoltaic, 99 wind generation, 23 landfill gas, 8 hydropower and one biomass. Of the REC projects, there were 33 solar, 13 wind, 13 LFG, 12 biomass, 6 hydropower and one refined coal. All of these technologies were included in the extension of the Section 45 tax credits last year.

25% of the applicants were in California (presumably reflected in the high solar pv project count); other active states were New Mexico, Montana, Minnesota and Colorado. There were few applicants from the East and South other than Massachusetts.

The strong results also set the state for a renewal of this program next year. This is a great program that provides valuable support to counties, towns and rural electric cooperatives that are eager to develop renewable energy projects but can't otherwise benefit from incentives available to the private sector. Click here for the Internal Revenue Service press release.

IRS Releases Additional Guidelines on Clean Renewable Energy Bond Program

On March 6th the Internal Revenue Service released additional guidelines on the Clean Renewable Energy Bond (CREB) program contained in the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

Briefing on Clean Renewable Energy Bonds - New Interim IRS Regs - Teleconference

On February 9th ELPC hosted the second in a series of national teleconferences on the Clean Renewable Energy Bond (CREB) program contained in the Energy Policy Act of 2005. The focus of the call was a discussion of the new interim regulations (IRS Notice 2005-98) and the application requirements for this program. Applications are due to the Department of the Treasury on April 26, 2006.

Speakers on the call were:

  • Susan Petti, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association
  • Joe McLiney, McLiney & Company, Municipal bond underwriter
  • Richard Larochelle, Sr. Vice President, Cooperative Finance Corporation
  • David Narefsky, Public finance attorney, Mayer Browne Rowe & Mawe
  • Howard Learner, Executive Director, Environmental Law and Policy Center

Listen to the December 12th teleconference (.mp3 file). If you have difficulties listening to these files please contact our webmaster.

Summary of Clean Renewable Energy Bonds - A New Financing Tool

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 (P.L. 109-58) provides electric cooperatives and public power systems with Clean Renewable Energy Bonds. A "CREB" is a special type of tax credit bond providing rural electric cooperatives and municipal electric utilities the equivalent of an interest-free loan for financing qualified energy projects. CREBs are largely modeled on the Qualified Zone Academy Bond program that provides tax credit bonds for school renovation and upgrades in certain qualified school districts. They deliver an incentive comparable to the production tax credit that is available to private renewable energy project developers and investor-owned utilities.

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