With the federal wind production tax credit set to expire on January 1, developers all over the country are going all out to ensure that their new wind farms become operational before the Tuesday tax credit-expiry deadline.

In the wake of the imminent expiry of the federal wind production tax credit, only those new wind turbines will be entitled to the tax credit which get connected to the grid and enter commercial service before midnight on December 31.

The new wind turbines which enter service before the deadline - which, as per Iberdrola Renewables spokesman Paul Copleman, will be quite like the April 15 deadline for filing income taxes, but with "no extensions" - will get a 2.2 cent tax credit for each kilowatt-hour generated by them in their first 10 years; with the amount totaling up to approximately $1 million for a big turbine.

The expiry of the tax credit - in place since the early 1990s - will not only put individual wind turbine projects at risk, but will also bring about a 90 percent fall in installations in 2013, as per the wind industry's projections; thereby cutting thousands of jobs.

In fact, the inconsistency in the wind subsidies over the years has set off a boom-and-bust cycle, with the result that supplier companies are constructing factories which run at full production for months, before shutting down due to a collapse in demand!