Corporate Demand For Renewable Power Lighting Up

For many years, the market for building renewable power projects and for purchasing their output was driven in large part by policy mandates and incentives provided by the federal and state governments. Policies like state renewable portfolio standards ("RPS"), which require utilities to acquire and sell certain percentages of renewable energy, and federal tax credits for wind and solar power were central to bringing renewable power projects online. 

However, those tax credits are currently scheduled to phase out over the next several years, and in some cases, utilities have procured sufficient renewable power to satisfy state RPS targets—often ahead of schedule. In that context, demand for renewable power from corporate America has emerged as a new and additional force driving the deployment of wind turbines and solar panels.