Latest Updates on the Solar REIT Concept

Since the GW Solar Institute first presented my research on the solar REIT concept at its annual symposium in 2010, the idea's footprint has expanded fairly dramatically. It has become a hot topic of conversation at industry conferences, is seen as a possible platform for future business development by existing industry players, and has received attention at the highest levels of government.

However, the thinking on the concept hasn't developed too significantly since my research was introduced to the public. This isn't become the thinking has become stagnant, but rather because the mechanics of enabling a solar REIT regime are actually quite simple, and the collective thinking of the industry has consolidated around what is considered to be the best approach to doing so.

Perhaps it isn't surprising that, in an absence of identifiable potential innovations, the solar REIT concept has been marked by a dearth of innovative writing on its viability. True, some clear thinking on the concept in the context of its potential role in the renewable energy financing framework of the future has been published, with McKinsey and Bloomberg New Energy Finance providing fine recent examples. However, more often the articles, blog posts and panel discussions I have seen on the topic sound extraordinarily familiar, almost like a faint echo of my own thoughts, slightly distorted and possibly auto-tuned, but familiar nonetheless.

As long as people are recycling my ideas (sans attribution in most cases) without adding new insights or even packaging them within the context of a broader unified and potentially industry-driving framework of financing structures, I figure that doing so myself is not only acceptable but advisable if for no other reason than the interest of legacy protection.

With that in mind, readers can expect to see a few excerpts from my research on the topic posted over the next few days. While I completed a similar exercise once already on this site, I did so in early 2010 when, frankly, traffic here was much lower than it is at the present. Wrapping up this series will be a brief post where I give an update on the current state of affairs as I am aware of it. As always, comments and feedback are appreciated in the comments section below.