Life After Incentives: Lessons from Europe’s Post-Subsidy Solar & Storage Market

Synopsis

As the U.S. solar and storage sectors approach the sunset of the ITC and PTC, stakeholders face a pivotal question: how do you build bankable, profitable projects in a market without federal incentives?

Europe already faced this cliff. Over the last decade, major markets such as Germany, Spain, Italy, and the UK have transitioned away from generous feed-in tariffs and direct subsidies. This forced developers, financiers, and asset owners to reimagine their business models. This session dives into what they did next.

This session is a practical guide for U.S. stakeholders preparing for a post-subsidy era. Hear how European players stayed competitive through capital innovation, efficiency gains, and new revenue streams, and how these strategies can translate to the American market.

• Pivoting heavily into long-term PPAs, merchant risk pricing and capacity markets to remain bankable without guaranteed subsidies
• Positioning portfolios to tap into ancillary markets and non-traditional revenue streams by monetizing flexibility
• Optimising portfolios into lean operations to reduce LCOE in an unsubsidized environment
• Scaling sustainably through capital recycling measures and risk-tiered portfolios