Treasury Grant’s Big Winners: Wind Companies

By Ucilia Wang

The U.S. Department of Treasury has doled out $502 million under a new program to provide grants to renewable energy developers who opt for cash instead of the 30 percent investment tax credit.

The $502 million is going to 12 projects that with a total of 840 megawatts of generation capacities, said Matt Rogers, senior advisor for Recovery Act implementation at the U.S. Department of Energy, during a press conference call. The DOE is helping out with reviewing the technical aspects of the projects.

Rogers said the 12 projects represent a 3 percent increase in the country's renewable energy generation capacity.

So far, the vast majority of that money has gone to wind farm developers, according to the Treasury Department Tuesday. The funding is the first round of funding since the Treasury Department launched the program on July 31. Project investors would get the cash equivalent of the 30 percent tax credit.

The Penascal Wind Farm in Sarita, Texas, has gotten the largest grant so far, at about $114.1 million. Runner up is the Locust Ridge II wind farm in Shenandoah, Penn., which received about $59.2 million, the Treasury Department said (see list of grantees). Iberdola (IBDRY.PK) is the developer behind five of the wind farms on the list, reported the Wall Street Journal.

The two solar projects on the list are the Solaire Development in Danbury, Conn., which took $2.6 million, and the Movement Gym PV System in Boulder, Colo., which obtained $157,809.

A big chunk of the $502 million went to projects in Oregon, New York and Pennsylvania. No projects from California, Arizona or Nevada, the sunny western states, received any money this time around.

The program, put in place through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, is meant to provide the much-needed financial help to project developers at a time when banks are skittish about making loans.

The government is proud to point out that it greenlit the first batch of funding in about half the time. The program's rules say qualified project developers would receive the money within 60 days of applying for the money.

The Treasury officials have estimated that the program would provide more than $3 billion overall to roughly 5,000 projects in solar, wind, biomass and other renewable energy generation projects.

There is no cap for the program. It's meant to help projects that are up and running during 2009 and 2010. The government would consider projects that aren't finished by the end of 2010. The guidelines spell out more deadlines.

The government has received thousands of applications from 35 states since the program began, Rogers said.

The first batch of awards are mostly going to large projects, but the government expects to approve the grants for many more smaller projects, said Dan Tangherlini, assistant secretary for management, at the Treasury Department, during a press conference call.

Comments

[User 499702:]

Slow Train To Job Growth.

theJob creation plan is fading fast and stalling. The President seems to have steered away from
getting the message out about plans to use the energy crisis as a jumping off point for green energy.
I heard the president say that thousands of new jobs are going to be created by the conversion from carbon to clean energy such as solar and wind.
So far it's all wind--and not from new energy. further, only a few jobs have been created. In California, which has been a spark plug for creative energy solutions, not a single job this year or next will result from economic stimulus.
Money is going to states which won't demonstrate much this winter in the way of new solutions. Why are the sunshine states being pushed to the back?
Has a deal been made with the country backing off from original projections of new jobs from solar and wind power for passage of that seemingly cursed
health care plan?
Frankly, now that the last Northern ice is melting and few get the message: "It's the climate change stupid!"
This, in spite of new record heat and drought world- wide, floods, earthquakes, and Tsunamis, new and hard to control disease outbreaks, unstable economies, and a wave of false prophets with the same old tired, worn, and gloomy message, that we know already! may we move on please? May we get off the soap box and go do something to help make a change, somewhere. Anywhere!
Meanwhile, the billions* gifted to Ford Motor company so far haven't produced a thing to conserve energy. They seem to have produced a very expensive 500 HP, sporty car billed to get 20 hwy and 15, city. the price of this car? $100,000 to $70,000.automatic transmission standard. for $600 more, a six speed standard transmission is available. In other parts of the world, electric cars, admittedly more modest in size, energy consumption, and price tag are being cranked out every day. Unlike the U.S., people in almost every country in the world are working at breathtaking speed to cut down on green house gasses. Countries like Russia and those in the middle east are finally getting the message, though slowly and with hesitation that there must be a hidden trick somewhere in all this talk and activity.
Corporate entities are stepping in at an increasing pace to do something that will be energy efficient and allow for Profitability. Management sees the writing on the wall. Unless they clean up their act, there won't be a need for them. Mankind will go the way of other species that could not adapt to changing conditions and simply vanished.
It's Extremely Disappointing that banks have taken stimulous money and parked it in vaults to avoid risk and to draw huge interest that pays executives large bonuses, At the same time they are implementing new charges on credit cards and reducing credit limits. They lament the 6% unable to pay the usurous interest rates they were able to charge consumers, in many cases as high as several hundred per cent. Of course they called these interest rates other things, such as a late charge, tacked on because the payment missed an afternoon deadline, though it did arrive the same day at 4:00 PM instead of 3:00 PM.
It is likely that the growth rate of jobs will contine to lag as consumers feel the pinch of new fees enacted to keep government programs running, While eliminating jobs, banks continue to feel the need to find the next gravy train at the expense of the people,
The new unemployed learn what other chronically unemployed have known for years.They are making do with less, and once the initial addiction is broken, the cycle of working two and three jobs to pay for "stuff," will also be broken. With luck, someone in the house will be working to pay for those things we all need such as shelter, food, and water. No need to worry about what the neighbors think about it anymore. Noone is working in their house either, though there is a small gardenand fruit trees sprouting in the back. it looks almost bucolic, don'tyou think?

Oct 17 09:35 PM