UPDATE 1 – Bill to extend tax credits for US wind solar passes Congress

Dec 18, 2015 18:35 CET by Tsvetomira Tsanova

December 18 – The US House and Senate today approved an omnibus spending bill that extends the Investment Tax Credit (ITC) for solar energy and the Production Tax Credit (PTC) for wind.

The bill passed in the House with a final vote of 316-113 and later in the Senate with 72-26. It now needs to be signed by President Barack Obama.

SOLAR ITC

The last pages of the omnibus spending bill, released Tuesday night, present a plan to gradually reduce the 30% solar ITC for commercial projects over the coming years, instead of cutting to 10% at the end of 2016.

Projects that start construction before 2020 will receive the 30% rate. It will then decline in small steps over two years, before falling to 10% in 2022.

WIND PTC

The bill from Tuesday also includes a proposal to extend for 2015 and 2016 the full PTC for wind farms. As with solar, the start of construction determines if the project qualifies for the credit.

Currently, the PTC gives USD 0.023 (EUR 0.021) per kWh for wind power supplied to the grid for the life of wind farms that qualify for the incentive. Projects that enter construction in 2017 will get 80% of the credit, according to the bill. For those that qualify in 2018 and 2019 the rate will be 60% and 40%, respectively, of what it is in 2015 and 2016.

The extension of the wind and solar incentives in the spending bill comes alongside a removal of a 40-year long ban on oil exports.

Share this story

Recommends: