Companies examine the alternatives for clean-energy credit in Idaho | Local News | Idaho Statesman
U.S. Geothermal CEO Dan Kunz already is upgrading a geothermal power plant in Nevada and developing a new one in Oregon.
Both states offer incentives to help companies like his overcome the high up-front costs to build clean energy generators that will last for decades. But Kunz is waiting to see whether the Idaho Legislature is going to renew a 6 percent sale tax rebate before he decides whether to expand his company’s 13-megawatt Raft River Geothermal Plant east of Burley in Cassia County.
Idaho is No. 3 in the nation in terms of geothermal power potential. But Kunz said without state incentives, developers like him will go to surrounding states without sales tax and more favorable attitudes toward alternative energy.
So far, the debate over the alternative energy tax rebate has focused on wind energy developers who have invested $1 billion since the rebate was first approved in 2005. A bounty of wind has Idaho utilities and the Idaho Public Utilities Commission calling for a pause so they can figure out how best to integrate this intermittent energy source into the power grid.
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