The wind industry has benefited immensely from falling costs, but the phaseout of a federal tax credit will likely derail the proliferation of wind projects across the country.
The price to generate electricity via wind turbines has declined in recent years. The national average was around $70 per megawatt hour in 2009, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. The average price now stands at $20 per megawatt hour — a $50 decline over eight years.
Plummeting costs have resulted in expansive growth for this renewable source of energy. Wind, which made up slightly more than 2 percent of the U.S.’ total electricity generation in 2010, increased to 6.3 percent in 2017.
Development is higher in the middle of the country, where utilities have been able to capitalize on the windier Rocky Mountain region. However, much of this growth is attributed to the production tax credit (PTC), a federal incentive for wind energy production that is paid for by the American taxpayer.
Currently, the PTC provides a $0.024 per kilowatt hour credit for wind generation. This rate is due to decrease incrementally, with the PTC dropping 60 percent of its current value in 2022 and then another 40 percent in 2023. Analysts predict this rate change will have a negative effect on the industry.
“Energy analysts project that annual wind power capacity additions will continue at a rapid clip for the next several years, before declining, driven by the five-year extension of the PTC and the progressive reduction in the value of the credit over time,” read a report authored by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. “Forecasts for 2021 to 2025 … show a downturn in wind capacity additions in part due to the PTC phase-out.”
The report — which was prepared for the Department of Energy — indicated the wind sector would also face competition from competitive natural gas prices and called the growth of the wind industry beyond the PTC cycle as “uncertain.”
Wood Mackenzie, an analysis firm, also predicted a more bleak future for wind after the rollback the PTC, issuing a report in August that suggested the industry will struggle to compete without the help of the federal subsidy.
However, changing policies from regulators might change this trajectory, analysts predict. Increased renewable energy mandates from state legislatures, which force utilities to adopt wind and solar, could stave off much of this impact.
Read more at Daily Caller
Way past due time. A technology that has been around as long as wind power should have never had a subsidy to start with.
Now get rid of the solar subsidies along with the requirement many states have where excess electricity generated by rooftop solar panels must be bought by the utilities at the retail, not wholesale rate. This would significantly reduce the incentive for homeowners to put the panels on their roofs and stop those of us not having panels to subsidize their installation.
Don Quixote approves
However, this “renewable” energy, in terms of the fact that the wind does blow, albeit not all the time, is not what it seems. These wind turbines have limited lifetimes and most of their parts are not recyclable. Ten to 15 years down the line, the turbine needs to be replaced. So, the energy may be theoretically renewable but the cost is in the extraction of that energy from the wind. That’s gonna cost, big time.
Ten years ago we had roughly 15,000 dead turbines in the US and it’s a given that that number has grown, a lot. More often than not, the dead turbines are simply abandoned. Right now, Denmark is up to its ears in nonrecyclable dead turbine parts and the only thing they can do with them is bury them.
The same problem exists with solar panels. They age, eventually can leak heavy metals into the environment, and lose their abilities of time. Again, most of the materials are not recyclable.
Renewable energy is a joke when the cost is enormous due to seriously flawed extraction of that energy.
I am not even mentioning the huge environmental footprint and extensive infrastructure of wind and solar, making them ultimate jokes when they are supported by uninformed, deluded environmentalists.
If I were king…
Every state Governor, legislature and/or general assembly supporting, promoting and legislating in favor of taxpayer subsidized wind and solar energy maintain offices and convene any and all legislative sessions or any other state related business only in state facilities whos electrical power is derived exclusively from those same wind and/or solar sources, erected on site.
Candles allowed but will be limited to one per-person per-month to minimize the negative impact on rising CO2 levels.
The free enterprise system is an excellent for sorting out industries and technologies that made sense. We need to us this system an stop the subsidies.
I would love to have the mandates to use renewable energy canceled. My power rate went up 15% due to an increase to the mandate to use renewable energy, and this was on top of the extra cost already in existence. If renewable energy made economic sense, these mandates would have to exist.
No more funding for these Bird and Bat maiming things scrap them all and recycle them all its trash cans
Can we assume that the “best” sites for wind generation , ie, windy plus close proximity to demand, have been developed? Diminishing returns on future development seems likely.
Well the extinct turbine towers won’t be a complete loss . Birds will be Happy and they can sell tickets up top to watch incoming NK missiles .
What would the USA look like if it wasn’t allowed to run up $Trillions in never to be repaid debt ? Guaranteed bird blenders wouldn’t be around . Tough choices would have to be made and frivolous BS would not make the grade .
Wouldn’t it be nice to go back to reality ?