UPDATE 2 - President Obama signs into law bill to extend solar, wind tax credits

US President Barack Obama on Friday signed a bipartisan budget agreement that includes extensions to tax credits for both solar and wind power.

As previously announced, earlier that day the US House and Senate approved an omnibus spending bill that extends the Investment Tax Credit (ITC) for solar energy and the Production Tax Credit (PTC) for wind, passing it for signing by the President.

The last pages of the omnibus spending bill, released Tuesday night, present a plan to gradually reduce the 30% solar ITC for commercial projects over the coming years, instead of cutting to 10% at the end of 2016. On the other hand, the PTC for wind farms will be extended for 2015 and 2016, with gradual reductions in the following years.

"Our early investments in clean energy ignited a clean energy industry." —@POTUS #ActOnClimate https://t.co/HsMIDd27MN

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) December 19, 2015

Top officials from the major players in the US solar power industry immediately commended the move.

Rhone Resch, president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), said that the five-year ITC extension will result in more than USD 133 billion (EUR 122m) in new, private sector investment in the US economy by 2020. This in turn will help more than triple the nation’s solar power capacity to 100 GW by 2020. "The solar industry now has a seat at the table with the nation's other major electricity producers,” he said.

"The ITC extension provides a sense of certainty that allows for new investments that might not have been possible in its absence,” SunPower’s own president and CEO, Tom Werner, said.

(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.920)

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