Phillip Moeller, a member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, told a Denver meeting that the wind industry must “get beyond” its dependence on the federal production tax credit subsidy.
“It has taken such an enormous effort time after to get it through Congress,” Moeller said. “It is disruptive and the industry has to get beyond it.”
The tax credit — equal to 2.2 cents for each kilowatt-hour a wind farm generates — has been a key part of project financing.
The tax expired and the end of last year, .
Nevertheless, orders for wind turbines dropped and some manufactures cut jobs. Vestas Wind Systems, which has four large plants in Colorado, cut its manufacturing workforce by about one-third to 1,100.
The solutions to renewable energy subsidies are bigger regional markets and dynamic pricing, which takes into account low and high demand periods.
“All these efforts help promote renewable energy,” Moeller said. “The place that is lagging is the West.”
Moeller made his remarks at the Rocky Mountain Clean Energy Transmission Summit.
