Compiled by CEN Staff

WASHINGTON — In a letter to Congress, several leading wind turbine manufacturers say targets set by Congress for renewable power are too low and will reduce such investments in the U.S.

Executives from GE, Spain’s Gamesa, Vestas Wind Systems A/S and Broadwind Energy Inc. signed the letter, which was released by the American Wind Energy Association. GE is the largest wind turbine maker in the U.S. and Vestas is the world’s largest. They wrote in the letter that “Significantly lower renewable targets” unveiled this week as part of a House climate-change bill “will severely blunt the signal” for billions of dollars in investment to expand production in the U.S., the executives said in a letter to Congress.

According to House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-California), a compromise reached on his legislation would reduce the amount of renewable power utilities have to buy. Waxman’s original proposal released in March called for utilities to get as much as 25 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2025, an amount that could be reduced to 20 percent with efficiency measures.

The Obama Administration has supported a 25 percent target. The Energy Information Administration reports the U.S. generated roughly 2.4 percent of its electricity from renewable sources in 2006. Currently, twenty-eight states and the District of Columbia have their own targets for renewable energy use by local utilities.

The compromise plan Waxman unveiled this week calls for a renewable target of as much as 20 percent, with 5 percent that could be offset by efficiencies. That figure could fall to 12 percent in some states if utilities show additional gains in efficiency.

The turbine manufacturers who wrote the letter did not indicate much how much wind energy investment could be hurt by the lower renewable standard.

“The U.S. cannot expect manufacturers to continuously commit to new manufacturing facilities and take the risk of investing billion of dollars in wind facilities when the U.S. itself is not willing to commit to renewable energy,” the letter states.