Government Energy Policy, Business and Technology

ITC, PTC Extensions a Boost for Solar & Wind Projects

Renewable Energy World: Recent initiatives on Capitol Hill are showing both companies and consumers that there is added incentive to converting to solar and wind power by promoting more project construction and bringing down installation costs of these new projects.

On December 18th, 2015, Congress approved a five-year extension to the 30 percent investment tax credit (ITC) for solar energy properties and 2.3 cents per kilowatt-hour production tax credit (PTC) for wind facilities. The ITC for solar energy will remain at 30 percent through 2018, before it phases down gradually to 10 percent in 2022. The PTC for wind energy will be at full strength in 2016 before phasing down 60 percent by 2020. Prior to the latest extension, PTCs were scheduled to expire completely for projects not having started construction by the end of 2014, and the ITC was to be reduced to 10 percent in 2017. The extended tax credits will be beneficial for the wind and solar energy industries by reducing the costs of installation and production.

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