State Solar Power Rebates, Incentives & Tax Credits

Tax credits for solar, wind power

24 January 2008

U.S. government encouragement of alternative power is on hold. Efforts to renew tax credits last month fell to Republican opposition.

The Christian Science Monitor reported after years of start-and-stop growth, wind-and solar- power industries soared in 2007, thanks to three consecutive years of tax credits that provided a critical lift for both sectors.

However, whether the fledgling industries can fly without tax credits, due to expire at the end of this year, is the subject of Capitol Hill debate this week.

As demand grows for a stimulus package for the faltering U.S. economy, green-energy advocates argue wind and solar—both left out of the new energy law passed last month—should be part of the package.

The 2005 energy bill provided exactly the kind of multiyear support the wind industry says it needs. The impact has been dramatic. Nearly one-third of all U.S. power capacity added last year—about 5,244 megawatts—was in wind.

Overall, wind-generating capacity soared 45% last year, adding the clean-energy equivalent of 10 large coal-fired power plants, the American Wind Energy Association reported last week.

Wind power injected $9 billion into the U.S. economy and now employs 20,000 people directly, the industry said.

There are plans for at least eight new U.S. wind-power manufacturing plants employing 5,000 workers.

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