Category — Tax, Structure & Financing

An Oregon federal judge on Friday refused to clear SolarWorld Industries America Inc. of allegations it sold photovoltaic cells with a type of conductive paste that infringed a DuPont Co. patent, ruling there were factual disputes that a jury should consider.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Dennis James Hubel denied a motion for summary judgment lodged by SolarWorld and co-defendant Heraeus Precious Metals North America Conshohocken LLC, which makes silver photovoltaic pastes that SolarWorld incorporates in solar cells, according to the suit. SolarWorld and Heraeus sought a ruling that they had not infringed DuPont’s U.S. Patent Number 8,158,504. [Read more →]

On May 20, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a “windfall tax” imposed on a subsidiary of PPL Corporation (“PPL”) by the United Kingdom (“U.K.”) is creditable for U.S. tax purposes. The Supreme Court held that the predominant character of the tax was tantamount to an excessive profit tax, and therefore, is classified as an income tax and creditable for U.S. purposes. The Supreme Court’s ruling overturned the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit’s (“Third Circuit”) prior decision on the matter. [Read more →]

Minnesota could become the 17th state to mandate that major power companies generate more electricity from the sun.

The state House passed a bill Tuesday to require investor-owned utilities to get 4 percent of their power from solar by 2025. It would be one of the nation’s more aggressive solar mandates, the equivalent of 2,000 solar arrays like the one Ikea installed atop its Bloomington store last year.

“It is a move toward the future,” said House Majority Leader Erin Murphy of St. Paul.

[Read more →]

A bill that would allow renewable energy projects to be structured as master limited partnerships was reintroduced on Wednesday. Although designed to foster investment in renewable energy projects, commentators see several potential problems with the bill. As noted in the following article, there is considerable concern in the solar industry that the bill would come at the expense of existing tax credits. The concern is that the heralding in of this new financing structure, would mean the elimination of the current tax credits upon which the industry heavily relies. Further, even if current tax benefits were left in place, unless the bill is revised to exempt renewable energy credits from the passive loss and at risk limitation (as is the case for oil and gas industry) it seems unlikely that widespread investment in Master Limited Partnerships would occur.  [Read more →]

On April 15, the Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”) released notice 2013-29 (the “Notice”) which provides guidance on what constitutes “beginning of construction” for purposes of the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (“ATRA”). A copy of the Notice can be found here. Under ATRA, a qualified facility (as described in section 45(d) of the Internal Revenue Code) will be eligible to receive the renewable electricity production tax credit (“PTC”) under section 45 of the Code, or the energy investment tax credit (“ITC”) under section 48 of the Code in lieu of the PTC, if construction of such facility begins before January 1, 2014. [Read more →]