In last December the final Republican tax bill became law, defending wind and solar power industries from the attempts to roll back on federal clean-energy incentives. What about other renewables?
This new law contains the BEAT – Base Erosion Anti-Abuse Tax, a provision that limits the companies’ use of renewable-energy tax credits to offset their foreign-transactions taxes, from the initial 100% down to 80% of the credits’ value. This, along with the reduction of the overall corporate tax rate to 21 percent will further reduce the usefulness of renewable-energy tax credits to investors, which could also increase costs for some renewable-energy developers.
Moreover, an extension of federal tax credits for fuel cells, geothermal power generators and heat pumps, combined heat and power generators (CHP), commercial energy-efficiency improvements and other sources that expired in 2016 is missing from this new law.
This new law and the general policy seem very different from what we see on the other hand.
At the end of 2016 the United States figured as the 1st country with the largest amount of geothermal power generating capacity, with 3,6 GW, 9,4 % increase on the 2015 total power generation.
Always according to the 2017 Renewables Global Status Report, the US hold the 9% of the global hydropower capacity, second only to China.
We also know that local governments are focusing on total pollution reduction strategies that include the total supply chain.
Most believe that these single-state strategies will run down on laws and provisions coming from Washington D.C, and this will open new possibilities for clean energy.
SOURCE: GreenBiz
