President Obama has announced the recipients of $2.3 billion in clean energy manufacturing tax credits under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  The intent of the Section 48C Program is to grow the domestic manufacturing industry for clean energy by providing a 30% tax credit for facilities manufacturing clean energy products.  The $2.3 billion will be matched by $5.4 billion of private investment.  Over 500 applications for the tax credits were received, and 183 facilities were selected from 43 states.

Projects eligible to receive the tax credits include technologies that create and store energy from renewable resources, advanced transmission technologies that support renewable energy generation, fuel refining or blending and conservation, plug-in electric vehicles and electric components, property to capture and sequester carbon dioxide and other property designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  Examples of projects that received tax credits include reequipping a manufacturing plant to build steel towers for wind turbines, building low-cost solar electricity systems, redeveloping a manufacturing plant to produce energy efficient electric water heaters, and the opening of a new fuel cell power plant with twice the efficiency of a traditional plant.  Read more...