Under a tight deadline to begin construction last year on a solar thermal system for a poultry processing plant, North Carolina-based FLS Energy received construction funds at the end of September, strove to find American-made steel pipe and solar panels to start construction in October, and activated the project’s first two phases in December. The construction timeline put the Prestage Foods project safely within the qualification parameters for a Section 1603 cash grant in lieu of renewable energy investment tax credits (ITCs).

But the solar developer wasn’t hurrying to meet the Section 1603 program’s construction deadline. On the contrary, FLS already had an investor lined up to monetize the project’s ITCs. The company’s main concern was staying ahead of competing energy sources, including natural gas. “As we were developing the project there was talk of a natural gas line running to the plant,” said Joanna Baker, FLS’s marketing manager.

“They couldn’t have the lag time waiting for the grant; they needed capital immediately,” said Jim Howard, CEO of Dudley Ventures (DV), which syndicated the project’s federal ITCs through one of its renewable energy tax credit equity funds.

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