Republicans plan short -term tax on solar and wind in the draft law

Republicans plan short -term tax on solar and wind in the draft law

economic groups and developers of clean energy are completely horrified by a provision in Donald Trump's budget law shortly before the entry into force. This provision is intended to tax the solar and wind industry and thus make it significantly more difficult to feed new, inexpensive electricity into the network.

New tax design for renewable energies

At the weekend, the Republicans presented a completely new tax for renewable energies in the Senate. This is included in the latest draft of a law that could possibly be adopted on Monday afternoon. The draft law already provides to abolish the tax incentives for renewable energies by 2027 and to provide the developers strict requirements in order to be able to request them.

difficult times for the American power grid

Experts and industry associations explain that the new tax comes for the American power grid at a very unfavorable time. The demand for electricity increases due to the new need from data centers for artificial intelligence. Ed Mills, a political analyst of Raymond James in Washington, said: "This new tax is a slap in the face for the wind and solar industry. One has switched from a positive point for the industry to a negative turn."

consequences for the power supply

If the law is adopted in its currently formulated version, it could endanger a massive amount of electricity that should be fed into the network over the next ten years. Wind, solar energy and long -term storage solutions make up the majority of the new electricity that has been value on the network in the past three years. According to Ben King, an analyst of the non -partisan Think Tank Rhodium Group, this is about 85% of what is currently in the development phase.

rising costs and missed opportunities

The maintenance of the tax incentives from the bidding era for wind and solar would have led to the modeling of the Rhodium Groups that between 400 and 1,100 gigawatts of new, clean electricity would be fed into the network by 2035. For comparison: The capacity of the largest fossil power plant in the country is almost 4 gigawatts.

"The increase in the costs for projects that are currently under construction and the difficulty of the construction of Diesresult in high prices," said King. "There are also great concerns whether the power grid can react." The lack of energy supply caused by the new taxes could be compensated for by new gas power plants and the longer operating of old coal -fired power plants. However, both solutions are more expensive than the construction of wind and solar systems. These costs are certainly passed on to consumers.

forecasts for energy requirements

The new tax requirements come at a time when the boom of artificial intelligence already consumes large amounts of energy. By 2030, it is predicted that the data centers that operate AI need 612 terawatt hours of energy annually - which corresponds to Canada's annual consumption, according to a study from accenture.

criticism of industry leaders and experts

According to Princeton Professor Jesse Jenkins, the new tax could increase taxes on solar projects by 18% by a large scale. Jenkins described the increase in taxation "the most important new energy sources" in America as "complete madness". The entrepreneur Elon Musk warned in a contribution on the weekend of the possible consequences of the new Senate design, which could endanger millions of jobs in America and cause long -term damage.

resistance to the new taxes

Even the US Chamber of Commerce, which usually supports legislative measures, spoke against the new tax for renewable energies. Neil Bradley, the executive Vice President of the Chamber of Commerce, was critical of: "The taxation of energy production is never good policy, whether in oil and gas or in this case with renewable energies. The demand for electricity will increase enormously, and this tax will increase the prices."

outlook for the future

Despite the resistance, it remains to be seen whether the tax for wind and solar survives the political process. Kevin Hassett, the director of the Weißen Haus National Economic Council, said that the Trump administration continues to be an extensive approach to increasing energy production, including coal, natural gas, oil and nuclear energy. He added that various types of solar and wind energy could also be part of the plan, provided they pass the market test.

Regardless of the new tax, the Republican budget draft will lead to the earlier reports from CNN to increase the energy costs of households in the course of the next decade. In states such as Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas, energy costs could increase by up to 18% by 2035 if Trump's law is adopted, compared to a scenario in which the law is not adopted.