Capital Subsidies, Grants and Rebates

National and subnational governments, development banks and utilities can provide cash incentives to initiate investment in a market. Rebates can be offered to residential and commercial end users, and they have been effectively used to encourage investments in energy efficiency upgrades, solar photovoltaic (PV) installations, geothermal heat pumps and other smaller investments. For example, utilities have purchased renewable energy certificates from end users via up front rebates for installing solar PV systems. Grants are typically provided to larger projects and may be used to support high risk, early stage project development activities.