Law, Policy, and the Future of Solar Financing
Friday, April 22, 9:00 – 2:45, UNC Botanical Gardens
Hosted by:
UNC School of Law Center for Climate, Energy, Environment, and Economics (CE3)
UNC School of Law Center for Banking and Finance
UNC School of Government Environmental Finance Center
Purpose and Narrative description:
All forms of renewable energy are at an inflection point. Falling costs, changing technology, and new
environmental and climate regulations have all moved to exponentially increase the growth of
renewable energy across the country, particularly in wind and solar power. While wind currently has
significantly more market share than solar, predictions are that solar photovoltaic energy will be the
fastest growing source of energy moving forward. Solar photovoltaic energy also highlights the differing
regulatory regimes which govern the use of solar at utility scale and solar energy at small (or
“distributed generation”) scale.
Much of the growth of wind and solar energy have been assisted by government policies providing
specific incentives for deploying these resources, but in the case of solar in North Carolina and other
states, some of these incentives have lapsed. In North Carolina, the state tax break, one of the most
generous in the country for solar energy, expired at the end of 2015, and the federal solar tax breaks are
scheduled to phase down within several years.
Additionally, the declining demand and price for fossil fuel energy have impacted investment in all
energy, including renewables. These factors highlight the need for re-examining the financing of solar
energy, and the profit opportunities presented by this. Law and Policy play outsize roles in what forms
solar energy financing will take.
This workshop will discuss: 1) the future demand for solar energy; 2) the current state of and viability of
financing options for solar energy projects (both small scale distributed and utility scale); and 3)
financing challenges and solutions to increasing the availability of private sector financing of solar
deployment through legal and/or policy changes.
Participants: academic experts, expert speakers on government solar incentives including taxes,
representatives of Public Green Banks, representatives of renewable energy companies, representatives
of large banks, representatives of medium/smaller banks, private equity representatives.
Work Product: White Paper examining current state of banking involvement in renewable energy
financing, describing opportunities, barriers, and proposals for increasing opportunity for banks and
financing for renewable energy through law and policy. Drafting Proposal for regulatory or private
sector innovation, if necessary.