"As I note in Friday’s paper, construction of new wind farms is going to grind to a halt with the end, at least temporarily, of the wind production tax credit. What’s next?"

"The credit is worth 2.2 cents per killowatt-hour generated, beyond whatever the electricity can be sold for on the regional market. At some hours of the day, most or all of the revenue will come from the tax credit.

Without the credit, wind farms could still be profitable if they were built where the wind is strongest, according to Robert W. Thresher, a research fellow at the Energy Department’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo. But the trend lately, he said, has been to move to somewhat less favorable sites because the best ones within connection distance of the grid have been used up."

Matthew L. Wald reports for the New York Times' Green blog December 28, 2012. [2]