U.S. wind power can lead to injury

The American wind power industry fears that a whole year's event did not happen. On January 1, the U.S. Congress voted to extend the wind power production tax credit (PTC) bill for a period of one year. As the only policy support enjoyed by the U.S. wind power industry, the PTC's survival determines the rise and fall of the industry. Because of the shortcomings in the continuation of this 20-year-old policy, the development of wind power in the United States has long been circulated in the cycle of “prosperity-decline”. The success of PTC has rekindled the enthusiasm of the market, but the challenges faced by the US wind power industry have not disappeared.

The New Year’s Fox News pointed out that the successful extension of PTC was a New Year’s gift given by Washington to the wind power industry, which greatly eased the market’s anxiety. Vestas shares, the world's largest wind turbine manufacturer, rose 6.7% on the day, the highest gain in five weeks, and Gomez shares rose 9.5%, setting a new high since August. Vestas marketing director Albek said that the timely extension of PTC is a very good news, because the US market is "extremely important" to wind turbine manufacturers and "it is quite good to start a new year in this way."

Prior to this, the American wind power industry was not optimistic about whether PTC could be postponed. Especially considering the political uncertainty brought about by the election year, the market's expectation of PTC's “invalidation” was very strong, and led to a series of negative effects: A considerable number of developers have cut their investment and new projects, the number of equipment orders has dropped significantly, and almost all of them have appeared in various degrees of layoffs in the US wind turbine manufacturers.

Obama’s successful re-election is seen as an important political factor in the successful extension of PTC. Secretary-General Soya of the Global Wind Energy Council concluded after the conclusion of the U.S. elections held at the end of last year that Obama’s victory in full support of clean energy will greatly benefit the wind power industry. PTC's delay is only a matter of time.

AWEA Vice President Graeme Lynch said: "We will have the ability to provide more clean and cheap energy for the United States. The rising US wind turbine manufacturing industry will continue to grow, and it is now 70% of the US The fan manufacturing is done in our own country."

It is worth noting that in 2013, PTC saw an important policy adjustment that allowed developers to apply for subsidies when the project construction started. However, the current policy states that declarations can only be made after the wind turbines are installed and generating electricity. This means that policy makers have taken into account the intermittent nature of wind power and the construction period of about two years, which is equivalent to strengthening the wind power stimulation policy.

This policy adjustment not only applies to wind power, but also benefits all renewable energy industries that enjoy similar tax reductions, especially in the green energy industry such as geothermal and biomass energy, which have small scale of development and high investment risks.

Reuters said that this means that investors can know earlier whether the project can win subsidies, thereby effectively reducing investment risks, the result is to stimulate investment. U.S. Geothermal Society** Javier expects that the emergence of the New Deal will bring at least $4 billion in new investment to the geothermal industry in the United States.

Cheng PTC also lost PTC

PTC is a new preferential policy introduced by the United States “Energy Policy Law” in 1992. It provides wind power and other renewable energy power plants with a discount of 2.2 cents per kilowatt-hour during the first 10 years of operation, ensuring that wind power is shared with coal, natural gas, etc. A place in the competition for cheap electricity has played an irreplaceable role in the development of wind power in the United States.

However, the validity period of this policy is very short, usually only two years. In recent years, it has been reduced to one year. Whether it can be postponed requires a vote in Congress. Congress usually votes after PTC expires, which seriously affects the continuation of the policy. Sex, wind power developers, manufacturers, and suppliers at all levels of the industry chain can only react passively, and are struggling to make long-term, big investments.

Since the birth of PTC, the development of wind power in the United States has shown a clear "prosperity-depression" cycle. A typical example occurred in 2003. After the expiry of PTC, the Bush administration, which was more pro-fond of traditional fossil fuels, could not reach an agreement on the extension, resulting in a 76% reduction in wind power installed capacity in 2004 from the previous year’s close. 2 million kilowatts suddenly dropped to about 500,000 kilowatts; PTC revival in October 2004, the results of the 2005 installed capacity exceeded 2.5 million kilowatts at a stroke, the United States has thus become the country with the largest installed capacity of wind power in the world.

After 2005, PTC's continuity has improved, and it can be updated every year at the juncture that is about to fail, achieving a “seamless connection” of policies. As a result, the wind power industry in the United States has entered a period of rapid development with an average annual increase in new installed capacity. More than 5 million kilowatts. Since 2007, 40% of new generator sets in the United States have come from wind power.

In August 2012, a milestone figure appeared in the wind power industry in the United States—the total installed capacity reached 50 million kilowatts. Prior to this, of the clean energy in the United States, only nuclear power installed reached this level more than 30 years ago.

As of the end of 2012, wind power has accounted for 3.5% of total electricity generation in the United States.

However, pessimistic expectations that PTC may not be able to postpone will force the US wind power industry, which has shown great development, to start worrying about the future.

According to statistics, 75,000 people in the United States currently work on wind power-related work. AWEA once predicted that if tax deductions cannot be postponed, at least half of these people will be unemployed, and the entire wind power industry's investment in 2013 will drop by 90%.

Bringing injuries to Fox News emphasized that the successful extension of PTC does not eliminate the "harm" of its earlier manufacturing. At the same time, the challenges faced by the US wind power industry are undiminished, especially the low electricity prices and the impact of shale gas. Many states have no intention of purchasing more wind power because renewable energy power generation targets are nearing completion.

AWEA said that in the past year, wind and electricians have spent their lives in "fear and fear." Due to the variability of PTC's availability, many wind power companies are unable to obtain orders for 2013. Active reductions have occurred from time to time. Cutting investment has become a common practice for major companies.

The British "Financial Times" pointed out that despite the delay of PTC, the "significant decline" in newly installed wind power and investment in wind power in 2013 was inevitable because most of the wind power enterprises had "adopted actions in advance" in 2012 and completed many of these actions. Project launched in 2013.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration issued a report late last year saying that due to a large number of developers trying to complete new projects before the PTC expires, it is expected that in 2012, the new installed capacity of wind power in the United States will exceed 12 million kilowatts, surpassing the record of 10 million kilowatts in 2009.