Oops

www.solaraccess.com/news/story?storyid=6856

Iowa has a new subsidy system:

• it establishes 1¢/kW-h tradable tax credit for new wind projects
  
• any project over 1 MW must forego existing exemption from state sales tax and reduced property tax
  
• local counties have to give the "extra" property tax to the state to cover the tax credit
  
• the credit is limited to 320 kW-h per MW capacity.

This shuffle obviously doesn't do anything to foster wind development. What it does is shift the subsidy from a blatant tax giveaway to what can now be presented as a "renewable energy incentive" credit. Local communities still pay for it.

The joke is the limit, 320 kW-h/MW/year. Reportedly the drafters of the bill simply forgot to multiply by the number of hours in a year, and it was supposed to be 2800 MW-h, representing a very hopeful 32% capacity factor.

They hope to fix the law in 2005. Nice try, folks!