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www.sname.org/sname/mt October 2012 Monopile foundation pieces destined for the Walney oshore wind farm o the Cumbria coast, UK. the German feed-in tari does not allow the possibility of upside for equity investors, while the U.K. tari does. e base feed-in tari is supplemented by a sprinter? bonus for projects entering the water sooner, while projects built in deeper waters or further from shore are eligible to receive the feed-in tari for longer than the base of 12 years. ese bonuses have accelerated develop- ment such that projects originally waiting on nancial close as project nance deals have instead been funded through company bal- ance sheets in order to receive the bonus. Loans provided by the KfW bank at rates lower than those oered by commercial banks have also helped projects reach nancial close. e KfW will provide up to 5 billion in loans to oshore wind projects, with individual proj- ects eligible for a direct loan of up to 50% of total costs (up to 400 million maximum). Taken together, these support mechanisms have helped the German oshore sector begin to pull ahead of the U.K. sector in terms of prospects for future growth. U.S. Policies with potential application e rst aspect of the U.S. policy context that should be examined is the role of state renewable portfolio standards in driving oshore wind development. e current portfolio standards could be compared to the United Kingdoms rst Renewables Obligation regime, when oshore wind proj- ects received only one ROC/MWh generated. Without a specic carveout for oshore wind energy in state renewable portfolio standards (analogous to the ROC rebanding), states will meet their portfolio requirements with land-based renewable energy generation, or the value of renew- able energy credits (RECs) will be driven down by the production of credits from land-based generation, eroding the eco- nomic competitiveness of oshore wind. e fragmented nature of state REC mar- kets erodes condence in the ability of these credits to support oshore wind projects. New Jersey is widely considered as a likely candidate for rst location for oshore wind turbines to be installed in the U.S., due to the carveout for oshore wind in that states renewable portfolio standard. e Payments in Lieu of Tax Credits for Specied Energy Property (1603) program is an example of a federal policy that has been particularly successful in enabling PHOTO COURTESY SILLSON COMMUNICATIONS LIMITED