Lost amid the fighting over extending tax cuts for the rich has been a subsidy program for alternative energy projects that is set to expire at year’s end. Advocates for the solar and wind industries say the grants are needed to keep projects moving, lest they shut down and force hundreds and maybe thousands of workers out of their jobs.

 

An effort to extend the renewable energy convertible tax credit program—otherwise known as the Treasury grant program—died last weekend in the Senate. Although referenced as a tax credit, the program really provides grants to help new solar and wind farms get established.

 

So far, nearly 1,200 solar projects in 42 states have been built with $1.3 billion from the program. This year alone, the solar industry added 1,000 megawatts of power in small, medium and large projects, and next year 2,000 more megawatts could be produced. But if the grant program dies, the total could be reduced to 800 megawatts for 2011.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Obama Tax Deal Leaving Out Clean Energy, Putting Jobs at Risk (by Elizabeth McGowan, Solve Climate News)

Tax Deal Kills 1603 Grants, Renewable Industry? (by Molly Peterson, Southern California Public Radio)

Loss of Renewable Energy Grants Could Threaten Smaller Projects (by Yuliya Chernova, Wall Street Journal)