Canada: Improving property tax system for green energy

McGuinty Government's Changes Encourage Renewable Energy Installations

Ontario is supporting property owners who install renewable energy technologies by improving property tax assessment policies for them.

The changes will provide greater clarity by creating additional categories for property tax assessment based on the size and location of energy generation. The move will encourage property owners to continue to install and use renewable energy technologies.

IEA: Renewables fastest growing energy sector

Renewable energy is now firmly entrenched as the world's fastest growing energy sector, according to a major new report from the International Energy Agency released this week.

The book, entitled Deploying Renewables 2011: Best and Future Policy Practice, analyses current trends in renewable energy and sets out a series of proposals designed to help governments develop effective renewable energy policy.

USA: Extending the Renewable Energy PTC

Rep. Dave Reichert (R-WA) and Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) have introduced legislation aimed at extending the Production Tax Credit, or PTC. 

First conceived in 1992 as part of the Energy Policy Act (H.R. 776), the PTC has been renewed year after year and also incorporated into the Energy Policy Act of 2005 as part of that Act’s Renewable Energy Production Incentives. The PTC currently provides a 2.2-cent per kilowatt-hour (kWh) on wind, closed-loop biomass, and geothermal resources for the first decade of a renewable energy facility’s life. Other renewable forms of energy receive a tax credit of 1 cent per kWh.