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Secured Carbon

Business is Booming. Optimism and deal-making are the order of the day.

Published 6 months ago • 1 min read

Business is Booming. Optimism and deal-making are the order of the day.

As the CEO of an American energy finance AI startup who lives in London, I bridge a few geopolitical and industry boundaries. So when president Trump was inaugurated on Monday, I was in a unique position to see the reactions of diverse entrepreneurs to the executive orders that followed.

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The day after Trump released the Unleashing American Energy Executive Order, I had meetings with a series of U.S., Latin American and African energy entrepreneurs seeking collaborators to leverage the latest laws to enhance the capital stacks of their deals. The headline: Business is Booming. Optimism and deal-making are the order of the day. There’s a near frenzy of entrepreneurial energy seeking to exploit new opportunities in the disrupted landscape. Trump has always been business-friendly and right now entrepreneurs are friendlier than usual.

I think these reforms to the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) were needed. While the grant programs were eye-catching, they were niche dole-outs. The core defining innovation of the IRA - a regulated clean energy tax credit transfer market that drives private investment while lowering tax obligations - is intact and now more focused. The IRA supersized the 6% ITC to 30%, and that is also untouched, which is unsurprising since the majority of these credits have been issued for projects in Republican-controlled states.

Key Impacts

  • Federal disbursements under IRA and Infrastructure Act paused
  • Direct pay provisions for public/non-profit entities suspended
  • Particular call out to the electric vehicle-related National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program and the Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Discretionary Grant Program

However, fundamental IRA tax incentives remain unchanged:

  • Clean Energy 30% Investment Tax Credit (ITC), including solar
  • Renewable Energy Production Tax Credit (PTC)
  • Carbon Capture and Storage Credit
  • Tax credit transfer provisions

Market Response

It's still early days, but our healthy pipeline of solar and battery storage projects seeking to monetize their ITCs, deal flow remains robust. The sustained momentum reflects the strong underlying levelized cost of solar energy, which continue to benefit from tax incentives, technological improvements, and market demand. Electricity-intensive AI data center deployments are a particular standout.

Looking Ahead

The energy finance sector appears positioned for continued growth, albeit with shifts in funding mechanisms from public to private capital sources.

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Tac Leung
CEO
Secured Carbon

​Secured Carbon is a streamlined risk management platform that unlocks clean energy tax credits to save the planet. Our software harnesses the power of the tax code to enable standardized and scaled investment in the clean energy transition.

The company is founded by entrepreneurs hailing from the world’s most renowned financial institutions including Standard Chartered Bank, Lloyd’s of London, Citi, Merill Lynch, Bank of America and Wells Fargo.

633 Main Street, Half Moon Bay, CA 94109
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Secured Carbon

Supercharging the clean energy transition with the power of transferable tax credits.

Secured Carbon is a streamlined risk management platform that unlocks clean energy tax credits to save the planet. Our software harnesses the power of the tax code to enable standardized and scaled investment in the clean energy transition.

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