Congress extends wind tax credits

January 4, 2013

Hurray! Congress has extended the wind energy tax credits through 2013.  Meaning that any wind turbine production project that begins construction in 2013 will be eligible regardless of them becoming operational or not in this same year.

This extension, although many hoped for a longer extension than one year, is huge for the wind industry.  Many large-scale wind energy projects have been put on hold recently in fear of the tax credits not being extended.

This could be a big year for wind energy production in the United States, with the tax extensions and President Obama’s hopes to motivate large-scale offshore wind projects on the Atlantic coast of the United States.

Although wind energy construction companies have been suspending many wind projects while waiting for this decision, the future, for now, looks better for the wind industry.

Let’s look at the capacity of wind energy production starting in 2000:

1999 – 2,473 MW

2000 – 2,529 MW

2001 – 4,232 MW

2002 – 4,687 MW

2003 – 6,350 MW

2004 – 6,723 MW

2005 – 9,147 MW

   2006 – 11, 575 MW

   2007 – 16, 906 MW

  2008 – 25, 410 MW

  2009 – 34, 863 MW

2010 – 40,267 MW

  2011 – 43, 461 MW

                                         2012 – 51,630 MW (Through September 2012)