US Congress passes five-year offshore wind tax credit

The U.S. Congress has passed a year-end spending package which includes a provision that would extend the Tax Credit (ITC) for offshore wind facilities at 30% through 2025.

The provision is part of the Offshore Wind Incentives for New Development (WIND) Act, introduced by Senator of Massachusetts Edward J. Markey, Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and Congressman Jim Langevin last year.

Offshore wind projects that are qualified for the energy credit include those whose construction begins before 1 January 2026, the bill states.

In addition to extending the offshore wind ITC, the omnibus budget package extends the ITC for solar and the production tax credit (PTC) for onshore wind.

“Offshore wind has the potential to change the game on climate change, and those winds of change are blowing off the shores of Massachusetts,” said Senator Markey. 

“In our effort to harness this potential, we will now be able to provide this burgeoning industry the long-term certainty in the tax code that it needs. Our workers and our manufacturers stand ready to meet the demands of the offshore wind industry, and our economy stands ready to reap the winds of success.”

To remind, Markey, Whitehouse and Langevin reintroduced the legislation back in May 2017, after leading a group of Democratic Senators the year before in calling on leadership to extend tax programs to help stimulate the development of offshore wind.

A 2015 omnibus bill extended the PTC and ITC until 2019, but project development takes more planning and permitting time and no offshore wind projects are projected to be able to qualify for the credit before expiration.