By John Gimigliano, Scott Vance, Katherine Breaks, and Hannah Burke Hawkins (December 27, 2011)

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 provides a grant to developers of renewable energy projects in lieu of the investment tax credit under Section 48 and the production tax credit under Section 45; to receive the grant, developers must forgo tax credits that would otherwise be available. The grant is available for renewable energy projects placed in service or for which construction begins by Dec. 31, 2011. Grant applications are due by Oct. 1, 2012. If an applicant's project is not yet placed in service, the application submitted by the October 2012 deadline is a preliminary application for the purpose of establishing that construction has begun on the project. Applicants must supplement their preliminary applications with a final application within 90 days of the date the project is placed in service.