Bloomberg reports that “more than 12,000 megawatts of U.S. wind farms were under construction at the end of 2013, the most ever, as developers raced to qualify for an expiring federal tax credit, according to the American Wind Energy Association.”  

“That’s about 11 times the amount of wind power that went into service last year after installations plunged 92 percent to 1,084 megawatts, the Washington-based trade group said today in a statement.”  

“Congress let the production tax credit lapse briefly at the start of last year, and uncertainty over the policy slowed wind development almost to a halt after 13,131 megawatts of new turbines were added in 2012. Once the credit was reinstated, it took much of the year for development activity to resume, said Liz Salerno, AWEA’s chief analyst.”