U.S. GEA applauds proposed extension of Production Tax Credits
U.S. Capitol, Washington D.C (source: flickr/ cliff1066™, creative commons)
Alexander Richter
17 Dec 2015
The U.S. Geothermal Energy Association (GEA) applauds the proposed extension of the production tax credit (PTC) for new geothermal facilities underway by the end of 2016 in the U.S. that could help stalled projects move forward.
In a release today, the U.S. Geothermal Energy Association (GEA) applauds the proposed extension of the production tax credit (PTC) for new geothermal facilities underway by the end of 2016, Section 187 of the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015. “This will help revive the industry that has languished for the past two years,” commented Karl Gawell, GEA’s Executive Director.
“The extension will help encourage new development in the coming year, bringing clean power and quality jobs to communities across the West,” he added. Geothermal power was added as an eligible technology to the PTC in 2005. The incentive helped spur new investment in US projects, but the credit lapsed in 2013 and was not extended with enough lead-time to help investors in new geothermal projects since then.
“We urge Congress to continue its work on broad tax reform that extends the incentives in a manner that provides a level playing field for clean technologies,” Gawell urged. GEA has supported the concept of a technology neutral approach, and hopes that future legislation will implement a tax code that gives incentives to clean power, provides longer-term certainty for investors, and does not pick winners or losers.
GEA’s 2015 Annual Power Production Report identified a significant number of projects nearing completion that could be affected by today’s congressional extension. In February, GEA reported, “the U.S. market had about 1,250 MW of geothermal power under development with about 500 MW stalled in Phase 3 waiting for power purchase agreements (PPAs). These are projects that could be brought online in 17-33 months, or sooner with the appropriate power contracts.”
Source: GEA
