What CleanTech Industries Benefit From New Tax Incentives?

From IBD New Tax Incentives Highlight Big Winners In CleanTech

As part of the $700 billion economic rescue package, solar, wind, geothermal, fuel cells and other clean-energy firms received tax incentives that help them compete with traditional forms of energy

Incentives are key for clean energy, which usually costs more to produce than traditional sources of power such as natural gas, coal and nuclear plants.

The clear winners: solar and emerging fuel-cell technology for providing electricity for industrial and commercial buildings.

Even more important, power utilities can now access the tax credit under the new bill. That will help create demand for larger-scale projects that deep-pocketed utilities can roll out, analysts say.

Analysts also point out that wind is closer to becoming competitive with traditional power sources

I've compiled a list of:

Solar Stocks

Wind Energy Stocks

U.S. Department Of Interior Launches Geothermal Energy Initiative

Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne today announced a plan to make more than 190 million acres of Federal land in 12 western states available for development of geothermal energy resources, an initiative that could increase electric generation capacity from geothermal resources ten times over.

Under the development scenario outlined in the plan – known as the Final Geothermal Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement – the initiative could produce 5,540 megawatts of new electric generation capacity from geothermal resources by 2015.

That’s enough to meet the power needs of 5.5 million homes. The plan also estimates an additional 6,600 megawatts by 2025 for a total of 12,100 megawatts – enough to power more than 12 million homes.

America Is At A Tipping Point....Google's Clean Energy 2030 Proposal

America stands at a tipping point. A huge transformation and opportunity is available with the right thinking and execution.

Our country is massive and loaded with natural resources. In addition, we have the best engineers in the world that can get us out of this "hole". A drastic economic shift can occur when we go from being a sole consumer of energy to "producing" it ourselves.

With some government incentives, we have the ability to:

1. Reduce our dependence on oil

2. Utilize our own natural resources (offshore drilling, ANWR) that buys us time (and lowers prices) until renewable energy becomes grid parity or competes with coal.

3. Reduce money going to oil producing countries (terrorist nations) and keep the money within our country (massive trade deficit reduction)..higher GDP,

4. Create millions of jobs (some that include manufacturing)

5. Allow people to be producers of energy in addition to consumers of it (HUGE transformation)..imagine the income change when Joe Consumer can sell power back to the grid while he's working at his job

6. Renewable energy technologies can be licensed to other countries...instead of buying oil, we can sell our own "oil" to other countries.

7. Profits generated by renewable energy companies (instead of foreign countries) can be put back into R&D and the economy.....the money stays here in the U.S.

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Google, a company that is creating the best methods for information retrieval in the Internet Age, has fantastic insight on how to thrive in the Renewable Energy Age.

Google Public Policy outlines Google's Clean Energy 2030

Right now the U.S. has a very real opportunity to transform our economy from one running on fossil fuels to one largely based on clean energy. We are developing the technologies and know-how to accomplish this. We can build whole new industries and create millions of new jobs. We can reduce energy costs, both at the gas pump and at home. We can improve our national security.

Highlights of their proposal:

(1) Reduce demand by doing more with less
reducing energy demand through energy efficiency -- adopting technologies and practices that allow us to do more with less

(2) Develop renewable energy that is cheaper than coal We want to help catalyze the development of renewable energy that is price competitive with coal. At least three technologies show tremendous promise: wind, solar thermal, and advanced geothermal

(3) Electrify transportation and re-invent our electric grid
Much of the technology in our current electrical grid was developed in the 60s and is wasteful and not very smart

For the full Clean Energy 2030 Proposal

US Geological Survey Suggests Geothermal Offers Greater Potential Than Previous Assessments

The U.S. Geological Survey assessment released today is the first national geothermal resource estimate in more than 30 years.

The resource estimate for unconventional EGS is more than an order of magnitude larger than the combined estimates for both identified and undiscovered conventional geothermal resources and, if successfully developed, could provide an installed geothermal electric power generation capacity equivalent to about half of the currently installed electric power generating capacity in the United States.

"The results of this assessment point to a greater potential for geothermal power production than previous assessments," said Dirk Kempthorne, U.S. Secretary of the Interior. "Geothermal energy is not only a renewable resource, but could significantly contribute to our domestic energy resource base."

Google recently invested in breakthrough geothermal technology.