While a lot had been said about harnessing the power of the sun to save the environment, not as much is heard about another equally green source of energy: wind power.
The unpredictability of wind, as compared to sunlight, has resulted in technology to harness solar power being developed faster than techniques to harness wind power. You can understand this better if you imagine asking a layman – who would you trust more, to generate power regularly? The sun that comes up each morning, or the wind that blows every once in a while? The answer would be clear – the sun is more predictable and seems more dependable.
The American Wind Energy Association is trying to rectify this situation, by educating the public, and setting up information sources available at a grass-roots level. It is educating people on what the potential of wind power actually is.
Individuals in the government have also set the wheels in motion for some pro-wind power legislation, such as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, to be signed into a law by President Obama, as recently as February 17, 2009. He’s barely been in office and has already done some good towards the environment.
The Production Tax Credit, which was secured under this the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, was originally created with the Energy Policy Act of 1992. Needless to say, that decade has seen a considerable amount of research into the effective harnessing of wind power.
So today, a wind turbine, which can harness wind power to generate electricity, can earn its owners an income tax credit of $2.1 cents per kilowatt hour. That’s not bad, for an individual who is looking for green energy generation for onsite electric power needs.
To sweeten the deal even more for project developers, the government has also made a provision for them to receive a 30% investment tax credit. All wind-power related project developers need to do, to avail themselves of this benefit, is to get the facilities in place by 2009 or 2010. And, furthermore, once the facility is in place, the investment tax credit can also be converted to a grant from the Department of Treasury.
There is also a provision allowing one to avail oneself of these investment tax credits, on facilities that are completed later on, provided that construction on them is begun in the year 2010. Not a bad deal for the government to offer project developers, is it?
Still, it remains to be seen just how many entrepreneurial project developers will make use of these incentives to use clean renewable energy resources.
Source – http://www.awea.org/legislative/
Disclaimer: This article does not constitute a source of a official legal or financial advice. While we attempt to represent all data as accurately as possible, we advice you to refer to official government websites, for the most accurate and up-to-date information.
This is good incentive for homeowners to utilize wind power