The clean-energy boom is about to be transformed. In a surprise move,
U.S. lawmakers agreed to extend tax credits for solar and wind for
another five years. This will give an unprecedented boost to the
industry and change the course of deployment in the U.S.
The
extension will add an extra 20 gigawatts of solar power—more than every
panel ever installed in the U.S. prior to 2015, according to Bloomberg
New Energy Finance (BNEF). The U.S. was already one of the world's
biggest clean-energy investors. This deal is like adding another America
of solar power into the mix.
The wind credit will
contribute another 19 gigawatts over five years. Combined, the
extensions will spur more than $73 billion of investment and supply
enough electricity to power 8 million U.S. homes, according to BNEF.
"This
is massive," said Ethan Zindler, head of U.S. policy analysis at BNEF.
In the short term, the deal will speed up the shift from fossil fuels
more than the global climate deal struck this month in Paris and more
than Barack Obama's Clean Power Plan that regulates coal plants, Zindler
said.
This
is exactly the sort of bridge the industry needed. The costs of
installing wind and solar power have dropped precipitously—by more than
90 percent since the original tax credits took effect—but in most places
coal and natural gas are still cheaper than unsubsidized renewables. By
the time the new tax credit expires, solar and wind will be the
cheapest forms of new electricity in many states across the U.S.
The
tax credits, valued at about $25 billion over five years, will drive
$38 billion of investment in solar and $35 billion in wind through 2021,
according to BNEF. The scale of the new projects will help push costs
down further and will stimulate new investment that lasts beyond the
extension of the credits.
Few
people in the industry expected a five-year extension. Stocks
soared. SolarCity, the biggest rooftop installer, surged 34 percent
yesterday. SunEdison, the largest renewable-energy developer, climbed 25
percent, and panelmaker SunPower increased 14 percent.
Congress
is expected to vote by the end of this week on the tax credits as part
of a broader budget deal that also lifts the 40-year-old ban on U.S. oil
exports. Oil producers have lobbied for years to lift the ban, but it
isn't likely to significantly affect either consumption of oil or
deployment of renewables. Leaders from both parties reached an agreement
on the bill late Tuesday.
The 30 percent solar tax credit was
set to expire next year and will now extend through 2019 before tapering
to 10 percent in 2022. The wind credit had expired at the end of 2014,
and the extension will be retroactively applied from the start of 2015
through 2019, declining in value each year.
Wind power has had an
especially tumultuous relationship with U.S. lawmakers, who have kept
the industry's credits alive through a disruptive ping-pong game of
short-term extensions every year or two. "You open manufacturing plants
and then you close them. And then you open them and you close them,"
BNEF's Zindler said. "It's economically inefficient. This will give them
a good five-year line of sight on what the market will look like, and
that's really important."
“La sabiduría de la vida consiste en la eliminación de lo no esencial. En reducir los problemas de la filosofía a unos pocos solamente: el goce del hogar, de la vida, de la naturaleza, de la cultura”. Lin Yutang
Cervantes
Hoy es el día más hermoso de nuestra vida, querido Sancho; los obstáculos más grandes, nuestras propias indecisiones; nuestro enemigo más fuerte, el miedo al poderoso y a nosotros mismos; la cosa más fácil, equivocarnos; la más destructiva, la mentira y el egoísmo; la peor derrota, el desaliento; los defectos más peligrosos, la soberbia y el rencor; las sensaciones más gratas, la buena conciencia, el esfuerzo para ser mejores sin ser perfectos, y sobretodo, la disposición para hacer el bien y combatir la injusticia dondequiera que esté.
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Don Quijote de la Mancha.
La Colmena no se hace responsable ni se solidariza con las opiniones o conceptos emitidos por los autores de los artículos.