Sunday, October 08, 2006

Wind Power Action

Altogether, U.S. wind resources are enough to provide several times our current electricity use, although other sources (or storage) would still be needed because of the variability of the wind.

The key ingredient for wind's continued expansion? Continuing the federal wind energy production tax credit (PTC), which reduces a wind farm owner's tax payments by 1.9 cents for each kilowatt-hour of electricity the wind farm generates during the first 10 years of its operation. The PTC is currently scheduled to expire at the end of 2007. If the credit is extended for several years, we will see much greater use of this clean energy resource. For smaller turbines, the key incentive is a Small Turbine Investment Credit, something that doesn't yet exist. Readers can help support these and other pro-wind laws here.

Also, plug-in hybrid autos can be manufactured with technology available today. They'll get 80 or so mpg, and they will allow wind energy (for example) to take a bite out of our oil imports. Readers can support this concept through Plug-In Partners.

1 comment:

Ramon said...

It would be so nice to see wind power used on a large scale as you mentioned. The tax credits will help, but I think the steadily rising cost of fuel will be more of an incentive for people. As for other energy sources, there are so many possible solutions. It's just a matter of how much pressure oil companies are putting on the government to keep the status quo.

I found Rising Wind in this directory of wind energy blogs. They also have a large amount of other useful websites about all of the many sources of renewable energy.