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Released July 17, 2017 | SUGAR LAND
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Written by John Egan for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--U.S. wind power developers completed 14 projects, totaling 2,405 megawatts (MW) and about $4.54 billion, during the first half of 2017, better than the comparable year-earlier period. But they are behind the torrid pace of completions for the first six months of 2015, according to Industrial Info's North American Project Platform.
For comparison, wind power developers completed 12 projects with total investment value (TIV) of $3.94 billion in the January-June 2016 period. For the comparable six-month period in 2015, developers completed 21 projects with TIV of $5.69 billion. For the first two quarters of 2014, developers finished eight wind power projects in the U.S. valued at $1.96 billion.
In terms of generating capacity added, developers brought 2,405 MW of new wind power projects online during the first half of this year, well ahead of the comparable six-month totals of 2,003 MW in 2016 and 961 in 2014. For the first half of 2015, developers completed 3,168 MW of new wind power generating capacity.
There's a full book of business for wind power developers for the remainder of the year, according to Industrial Info's project platform. An estimated 30 projects, with aggregate generating capacity of about 4,214 MW and collectively valued at $7.55 billion, are scheduled to kick off during the second half of this year. The states with the busiest schedule of second-half wind power construction kickoffs are Texas, Ohio, Kansas and Illinois, on a dollar-value basis.
Industrial Info does not expect all of those second-half construction starts to take place according to schedule, or that all will finish according to plans. In fact, several active projects scheduled to begin construction in the second half of 2017 have been delayed multiple times, some for five years or more. Still, the projects completed in the first half of 2017, plus the scheduled second-half construction kickoffs, should make for a very busy full-year 2017 for wind power developers in the U.S.
"The wind power industry had a very solid first half of 2017," commented Britt Burt, Industrial Info's vice president of research for the Global Power Industry. "Developers have an incentive to get steel in the ground sooner rather than later, as the federal production tax credit (PTC) drops by 20% per year."
Burt said that the surge of project starts during the first half of 2015 was because the PTC was scheduled to expire in December of that year. At the end of 2015, Congress extended the credits for five years but pro-rated them to incent developers to begin construction as soon as possible. Projects that began construction in 2016 were eligible to receive the full PTC of about 2.3 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) of electricity generated for up to 10 years. Projects kicking off construction this year will be eligible to receive 80% of that tax credit, about 1.84 cents per kWh. Projects that begin construction in 2018 will only be eligible to receive 60% of the tax credit, about 1.38 cents per kWh, for up to 10 years. For more on the extension of the PTC and the investment tax credit (ITC) for solar power, see December 21, 2015, article - Renewable, Alternative Energy Industries Cheer Extensions of Tax Credits.
"The surge of renewable energy construction in recent years has placed additional focus on interconnecting those resources to the electric grid and backing those intermittent generating resources with firm, dispatchable generation, like gas-fired power plants or hydroelectric generation," Burt continued. "All those wind turbines spinning on all those hills across the country is yet another sign of the continued transformation of the Power industry."
Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, five offices in North America and 10 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities. Follow IIR on: Facebook - Twitter - LinkedIn. For more information on our coverage, send inquiries to info@industrialinfo.com or visit us online at http://www.industrialinfo.com.
For comparison, wind power developers completed 12 projects with total investment value (TIV) of $3.94 billion in the January-June 2016 period. For the comparable six-month period in 2015, developers completed 21 projects with TIV of $5.69 billion. For the first two quarters of 2014, developers finished eight wind power projects in the U.S. valued at $1.96 billion.
In terms of generating capacity added, developers brought 2,405 MW of new wind power projects online during the first half of this year, well ahead of the comparable six-month totals of 2,003 MW in 2016 and 961 in 2014. For the first half of 2015, developers completed 3,168 MW of new wind power generating capacity.
There's a full book of business for wind power developers for the remainder of the year, according to Industrial Info's project platform. An estimated 30 projects, with aggregate generating capacity of about 4,214 MW and collectively valued at $7.55 billion, are scheduled to kick off during the second half of this year. The states with the busiest schedule of second-half wind power construction kickoffs are Texas, Ohio, Kansas and Illinois, on a dollar-value basis.
Industrial Info does not expect all of those second-half construction starts to take place according to schedule, or that all will finish according to plans. In fact, several active projects scheduled to begin construction in the second half of 2017 have been delayed multiple times, some for five years or more. Still, the projects completed in the first half of 2017, plus the scheduled second-half construction kickoffs, should make for a very busy full-year 2017 for wind power developers in the U.S.
"The wind power industry had a very solid first half of 2017," commented Britt Burt, Industrial Info's vice president of research for the Global Power Industry. "Developers have an incentive to get steel in the ground sooner rather than later, as the federal production tax credit (PTC) drops by 20% per year."
Burt said that the surge of project starts during the first half of 2015 was because the PTC was scheduled to expire in December of that year. At the end of 2015, Congress extended the credits for five years but pro-rated them to incent developers to begin construction as soon as possible. Projects that began construction in 2016 were eligible to receive the full PTC of about 2.3 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) of electricity generated for up to 10 years. Projects kicking off construction this year will be eligible to receive 80% of that tax credit, about 1.84 cents per kWh. Projects that begin construction in 2018 will only be eligible to receive 60% of the tax credit, about 1.38 cents per kWh, for up to 10 years. For more on the extension of the PTC and the investment tax credit (ITC) for solar power, see December 21, 2015, article - Renewable, Alternative Energy Industries Cheer Extensions of Tax Credits.
"The surge of renewable energy construction in recent years has placed additional focus on interconnecting those resources to the electric grid and backing those intermittent generating resources with firm, dispatchable generation, like gas-fired power plants or hydroelectric generation," Burt continued. "All those wind turbines spinning on all those hills across the country is yet another sign of the continued transformation of the Power industry."
Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, five offices in North America and 10 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities. Follow IIR on: Facebook - Twitter - LinkedIn. For more information on our coverage, send inquiries to info@industrialinfo.com or visit us online at http://www.industrialinfo.com.
