Renzi Unveils Rural Wind Energy Development Act

Legislation helps individuals offset upfront costs of owning a small wind turbine WASHINGTON, D.C. U.S. Reps. Rick Renzi (R-AZ) and Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) recently introduced The Rural Wind Energy Development Act, legislation that helps individual homeowners, farmers, and small businesses offset the upfront costs of owning a small wind turbine. "I am pleased to partner with Congressman Blumenauer in introducing this important bill to make small wind turbines more accessible to America's homeowners and small businesses," said Congressman Renzi. "Small wind systems are not only a good source for green energy, but they also help scale down our nation's dependency on foreign oil and reduce greenhouse gases. I urge House Democratic leaders to move quickly to bring this legislation to a floor vote to allow more Americans to invest in this vital source of energy." The Rural Wind Energy Development Act (H.R. 1772) provides an investment tax credit of $1500 per ½ kilowatt of capacity for small wind systems, which could be carried over for a customer unable to take advantage of the entire credit within a one-year period. Currently there is no federal support for small wind systems. The Federal Production Tax Credit (PTC) applies only to large utility-scale wind projects, not to individuals who want to install their own wind systems for on-site power. An investment tax credit for small wind systems will help provide stability and certainty for the industry to make the necessary investments to grow. A similar investment tax credit for residential solar systems lead to an increase of more than 20% in installations over the last year. SPECIFIC BENEFITS OF THE RURAL WIND ENERGY DEVELOPMENT ACT * Consumers: Small wind turbines are in demand, but the high upfront cost of installation is a barrier for homeowners and businesses wishing to install them. The cost of a turbine large enough to power a whole home is usually around $30,000. * Farmers: A single wind turbine can provide $2,000-$4,000/year per megawatt or more in farm income. * The environment: Wind turbines are pollution-free. Wind-power produces no harmful greenhouse gas emissions, involves no environmentally damaging natural resource extraction such as mining or drilling, and does not need fuel imported from foreign governments. * The economy: Wind energy helps diversify farm income for farmers, ranchers, and other landowners. Each megawatt of wind provides 2.5-3 job-years of employment and every 10 turbines installed about means about 1 skilled O&M job. Diversifying the nation's power supply will make us less vulnerable to the volatility in price and availability of other sources of energy.