With the expiry of the tax credit coming to a closer, companies are gearing up to install the wind turbines in the U.S. As a result, the installation of wind turbines may be more than that of power plants that run on fuel.
As per the Ventyx Inc., a subsidiary of Swiss Power transmission equipment maker ABB Ltd. (ABBN), the power capacity through harnessing wind energy was 6,519 MW by the end of November. This is more than that produced through gas and twice that of coal.
Industry experts believe that the wind power generation will cross 8 gigawatts for the year of 2012, which would definitely be more than gas and coal.
The reports of New Energy Finance echoes the same view and points that the setting up of number of wind firms in the last couple of months in 2012 would make wind a more dominant player in the power sector.
This surge in production is due to the fact that companies are in a hurry to take advantage of the production tax credit that is in vogue till December 31st.
Wind energy undoubtedly is treated as a valuable source of energy. This is something that was not the case five years ago.
The tax credit provides the wind companies with 2.2 cents for the production of each kilowatt-hour of power over a period of ten years. If congress does not extend the incentive, the installation of wind turbines will drastically fall down.
The Senate Finance Committee approved a bill to extend the wind production tax credit which was first initiated in 1992.
There is a proposal to phase out the credit over a period of six years by the Atomic Wind Energy Commission instead of stopping it abruptly. Apart from denting the wind energy sector gravely, the stoppage of tax credit will also lead to huge loss of jobs.