It’s been over a year since the environmental disaster in Fukushima, Japan, captured the attention of the world and rekindled the unprecedented public focus on global energy production seen a year earlier during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. While we’ve been tracking the US electricity and oil and gas sectors and monitoring the (lack of) associated federal policy developments, a few of us at GreenOrder recently stopped and asked ourselves, “What’s Japan been up to?”

The federal Production Tax Credit (PTC) for wind power, which makes the renewable source of energy attractive by paying 2.2 cents per kilowatt-hour of generated power, is set to expire at the end of 2012 and sink the US wind industry along with it.

The projected decline in US wind development has been well covered: The American Wind Energy Association points out that in the year following each previous PTC expiration in 1999, 2001, and 2003, installed wind capacity in the US decreased by 93%, 73%, and 77%, respectively. Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) concurs, projecting a decline in turbine installations of as much as 95% in 2013 compared to this year.

According to the Energy Information Administration’s June 2011 energy report, renewable energy has now surpassed nuclear in terms of US energy production. Additionally, a new report by UNEP indicates that investors poured a record $211 billion into renewable energy in 2010, accounting for one-third of all new generating capacity globally. That's a 540% rise in investment since 2004 (all during a global financial crisis).  Considering such tremendous growth, it’s clear that the renewables industry, in the US and globally, is a waking giant not to be taken lightly. As renewables become more mainstream, the clean tech industry will undoubtedly face scrutiny as the public gains interest and insight into some of the costs that accompany the benefits of renewable energy. Transparency will be vital for companies in the renewable energy industry when it comes to keeping stakeholders involved and informed.