Dive Brief:
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More than 100 wind farms are under construction in 24 states, including several that have just broken ground, the American Wind Energy Association reported in its second quarter 2015 market report.
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Several windy states are ramping up construction of their renewable energy projects to take advantage of two expired federal tax credits that the Senate Finance Committee voted to extend last week: the production tax credit and the investment tax credit, which both offer incentives to builders of U.S. wind farms and will be in effect until the end of next year. The full Senate will now decide whether to pass the extension.
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When the tax credits expired briefly in 2013, construction of new wind farms fell by 92%, according to the association. That eliminated 30,000 jobs industrywide.
Dive Insight:
The amount of wind capacity under construction is near a record high, association CEO Tom Kiernan said in a statement. The AWEA report said during the second quarter of 2015, the wind industry installed 1,661 megawatts — a record for the quarter.
The tax credit saves a project owner 2.3 cents per kilowatt-hour for wind-generated electricity produced during the farm's first decade of operation.
"This looks to be a strong year for American wind power," Kiernan said. "However, to create longer term stability for the industry, the full Senate and the House of Representatives must move quickly to extend the PTC (production tax credit) and ITC (investment tax credit)."
