Impact of tax incentives on the commercialization of solar thermal electric technologies. Volume II. Federal revenue considerations

Technical Report · Fri Nov 01 04:00:00 EST 1985

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/6499626· OSTI ID:6499626

Bos, P B; Morris, G P

The purpose of this study was to quantify the impact of the Solar Thermal Central Receiver (STCR) tax incentives and commercialization on the federal treasury revenues. The initial STCR market penetration was assumed to take place in California, because of favorable local conditions. The initial financing was assumed to be underwritten by intermediary partnerships under long-term avoided cost contracts with the local utility companies with subsequent sale of the plants to utilities at competitive prices. To estimate the impacts of these various tax incentives associated with the commercialization of the STCR technology, the tax revenues and costs for the STCR plants were compared with the tax revenues and costs for the displaced conventional power plants. This differential analysis takes into account the different operating expenses, as well as the different depreciation charges, financing costs, and tax credits associated with STCR and conventional plants. The study also evaluated the impact of both the previous (1983) and current (1984) proposed federal energy tax credits. The resulting total annual tax cash flows were subsequently cumulated to determine the aggregate tax revenues and costs throughout the 1985 to 2034 time period. The results of this analysis indicate that the initial federal tax revenues are negative. With increasing market penetration, the installed costs of the STCR plants decrease rapidly and the net present values of the tax revenue cash flows associated with plants constructed after 1995 are positive, and become significantly larger than those for the corresponding displaced conventional plants.

• Research Organization: Polydyne, Inc., Menlo Park, CA (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-76DR00789
• OSTI ID: 6499626
• Report Number(s): SAND85-8182; ON: DE86003544
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
140300 -- Solar Energy-- Economic
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29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
299001 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Solar-- (1989-)
CENTRAL RECEIVERS
COMMERCIALIZATION
CSP
Concentrating Solar Power
ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
ECONOMICS
FINANCIAL INCENTIVES
FINANCING
FORECASTING
MARKETING RESEARCH
POWER PLANTS
SOLAR POWER PLANTS
SOLAR RECEIVERS
SOLAR THERMAL POWER PLANTS
TAX CREDITS
THERMAL POWER PLANTS
TOWER FOCUS POWER PLANTS