11 Gigawatts of California Renewable Energy Must Start in 2010 or Lose Recovery Act Funds

Posted by EcoFriendly

Aug 9

Of the 16 Gigawatts of renewable energy that the US will have installed once the Recovery Act (ARRA) stimulus funds are all spent, 11 Gigawatts are in California, according to a document released by the CEC enumerating 11,180 MW worth of proposed projects listing an application for Recovery Act funding. Of these 53 projects, 8,906 MW are in 20 projects totaling over 200 MW each. The projects would drive 10,000 construction jobs, 2,200 operational jobs and up to $30 billion in investment.

The Recovery Act funding for them is either in the form of a loan guarantee for private investment, or the 30% tax credit, if an investor has had no profits to take a tax credit against (on tax years since the 2008 econo-apocalypse, that lingers still) then in the form of cash grants in lieu of 30% tax credits on investments in renewable energy.

The 30% tax credit is timed out at the end of 2012 for wind, and 2013 for biomass, but has till 2016 for solar. However, the Recovery Act 30% cash funding has till the end of this year only. (more…)