SUPPORTING WIND

Looming tax-credit expiration puts wind industry "under a dark cloud"
Mark Jaffe, December 1, 2011 (Denver Post)

"After two strong sales years,Vestas Wind Systems, which has four factories in Colorado, is bracing for the market to "fall off a cliff" if Congress fails to renew a wind-energy tax credit.

"The wind-production tax credit, or PTC, is set to expire at the end of 2012, and that could lead to as much as an 85-percent drop in wind installations…Denmark-based Vestas, the world's largest wind-turbine maker, has invested $1 billion in four plants in…[in the U.S.] and created 1,700 jobs, including suppliers…"

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"There is a lobbying effort to extend the credit, with Democratic and Republican lawmakers supporting the effort…The tax credit is equal to 2.2 cents for each kilowatt-hour generated and is the element that helps the industry with financing and competition with other types of power plants…

"…[Forecasts] for 2012 [suggest] a record 10.7 gigawatts of wind installations in 2012, and without the tax credit, that is projected to drop to 1.5 gigawatts in 2013…"