The ripple effects from your investment in clean energy transferable tax credits (TTCs) extend far beyond managing your tax liability.
Corporate Buyers
With your purchase of TTCs, not only do you provide financing support to solar, wind, battery storage, advanced manufacturing, and other clean energy projects, you generate an attractive risk-adjusted return on cash, boost your company’s earnings, and reduce your effective tax rate.
Buyers yield a return on cash as they reduce their income tax liability by the face value of the credits they purchase at a discount. Additional timing factors add further to the benefit. For example, a buyer could reduce Q1 estimated tax payments based on TTCs they pay cash for in Q4.
Buyers boost their financial statement earnings as they recognize an income tax benefit and a reduction to their effective tax rate when they utilize the credits. The net income increase recognized adds another layer of benefit to your decision to support the green energy transition.
Clean Energy Projects
From start-ups to long-established generators, clean energy projects across the nation are experiencing strong growth. Built-in incentives like TTCs attract corporate buyers from all industries who are looking to offset tax liability and help advance clean energy projects through their purchases of credits.
The market reflects that momentum. In 2025, TTC transactions reached approximately $42 billion, up 48% from the prior year. Roughly one in four Fortune 1000 companies now participate in the TTC market, another sign that these purchases are no longer considered a niche strategy but rather have become a mainstream tax planning tool.
Clean energy deployment continues to set records. Developers added 53 gigawatts of new utility-scale generating capacity to the U.S. grid in 2025, the most in a single year since 2002. The EIA projects a record 86 gigawatts in 2026, with solar, battery storage, and wind making up the majority. As of early 2026, renewable sources accounted for roughly a third of U.S. utility-scale generating capacity.
The Planet
The U.S. has a long history of responsible environmental stewardship that has made our skies and waterways among the cleanest in the world. Continuing in those footsteps of successful policies, transferability is now broadening the scope of participants involved in helping the natural world remain a better, cleaner place to live.
The purchase of TTCs is a proactive strategy, not only to achieve short-term financial goals, but to make meaningful, lasting impacts, locally and globally, on decarbonization efforts and continued pollution and waste mitigation. As global demand for electricity increases, driven in part by new data centers and the broader electrification of the economy, corporate investment will continue to be a driving force behind the innovation and financing necessary in the clean energy sector, delivering a greener future.
People Everywhere
As the health of environments improve, so too does the health and well-being of the individuals and families who inhabit them. With every dollar invested in clean energy financing and generation, we move closer to safer, more affordable energy solutions and the opportunity for people everywhere to enjoy fresher air, purer drinking water, and the beauty of our natural world.
By trusting Smith Dierking to help your company achieve financial goals today, you’re also playing a part in taking care of the planet and its people tomorrow. We can work together to create a strategy where everyone benefits.