On November 13, 2018 the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) published a report, Examination of Federal Financial Assistance in the Renewable Energy Market, co-authored by Kutak Rock attorneys Seth Kirshenberg, Hilary Jackler and Richard Butterworth and Scully Capital. The report highlights the success of federal government policy promoting renewable energy to assist in creating the growth and viability of the renewable energy sector in the United States and how that model can be used for other energy production projects including small modular reactors (SMRs).

In numerous sectors of the economy, the Federal government has utilized financial incentives to mobilize private sector investment and advance policy objectives. The renewable energy sector provides a highly relevant example of how financial assistance in the form of demand mandates and financial incentives can spur industry development. This report introduces these incentives, discusses how they have been utilized over the past decade to stimulate investment in the renewable energy sector, and provides data on their cost and effectiveness in meeting policy objectives. It examines financial support from state, local and federal governments that was used to stimulate investment in the development of the renewable energy sector, particularly wind and solar, over the ten years from 2005 to 2015, and looks at how SMRs could benefit from similar forms of government support.

The third in a series created for the DOE on federal energy development, the report uses renewable energy market examples and highlights how this roadmap can be used for small modular reactor (SMR) development in the United States. The first report, Purchasing Power Produced by Small Modular Reactors: Federal Agency Options, focused on federal power purchase agreements while the second report, Small Modular Reactors: Adding to Resilience at Federal Facilities, focused on energy resilience at defense facilities and other important federal infrastructure.