The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) has today welcomed the announcement by the US government to begin issuing grants for renewable energy projects worth nearly US $500 million.
The Departments of Treasury and Energy made the announcement further to the establishment of a Congress programme with roots in the economic recovery package put together earlier this year. This element of the recovery package aims to boost green energy investment and employment. The grants will be issued in lieu of tax credits of nearly $500 million for 10 wind energy projects in Minnesota, New York, Maine, Pennsylvania Oregon, and Texas.
AWEA Senior Vice President for Public Policy Rob Gramlich said “For these grantees and many other projects that are preparing their applications, we are seeing business activity picking up and turbine and parts orders being sent all the way up the value chain”
“That activity had all but dried up and it is very encouraging to see this turnaround underway. Time will tell if that market signal is strong enough to keep the 85,000 people working in the wind industry employed for the next couple of years.”
The grants are aimed at incentivising the healthy progression of the wind energy and other renewable energy sectors and will step in the footsteps of the production tax credit (PTC) that has up until the last few years been the stimulus for wind energy projects. The recession and the problems securing credit have resulted in the PTC being practically ineffective.
The US took the position of world wind energy leader this year creating 35,000 new green collar jobs across the country. Figures for 2009 indicate a reduction in growth due to difficulties with wind energy project financing. The AWEA has been pushing for a national renewable electricity standard (RES) as a way to give confidence to financial markets about the U.S. commitment to renewable energy. In turn this political committment would help meet President Barack Obama’s goal to double renewable energy production over the next few years.
The RES committment would increase the US electricity supply coming from renewable energy sources to at least 4 percent in 2011-12 and 20 percent in 2021-39.
