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“Asset managers and consultants are closely watching how the U.S. presidential election could impact renewable energy investing.

Those with a focus on the sector are trying to discern whether politics around, and specific economic incentives borne out of, the Inflation Reduction Act and its myriad tax credits for clean energy will change after the November election.”

. . .

Regardless of what happens in November, managers and consultants who focus on renewables and infrastructure broadly said they are bullish on its future.

While a Trump win would be a shift for energy sector, “infrastructure as a whole has had a lot of bipartisan support, so I would be surprised if there weren’t good opportunities in infra going forward, and it’s hard to deny that no matter who’s in power,” said Larissa Davy, senior investment director of real assets at NEPC.

Her colleague Matt Ritter, partner and head of real assets Investments at NEPC, said the potential political and regulatory risk is something the firm is taking into account in its underwriting.

“The strategies that we’re recommending and looking at we believe are viable even if there were to be political or regulatory change,” Ritter said. “That’s not to say necessarily that every asset out there is in the same position, but we’re very focused on strategies that are not reliant on those subsidies or those sorts of programs to be viable.”

Even if the IRA tax credits were rolled back under a second Trump administration or Republican Congress, there are still viable investments in the renewable space, according to Davy.

“A fund investing today in renewable power is not going to suddenly not be profitable if Trump was to win this year going forward,” she said. “Over the long term that could change, but certainly that would have to be a consistent repeal of some of these types of policy agreements, like the IRA, over a 10-year term.”