Obama’s goal to double U.S. renewable- energy by 2012 may take years longer because even fully funded projects take at least three years to develop, he said.

In Bush’s last three years, solar and wind production doubled, helped by easier financing and tax breaks

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20670001&refer=home&sid=awAasQBsmz0oPresident Barack Obama may find it harder to increase renewable energy than his predecessor during a financial crisis that halted lending by Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and other alternative-power financiers, investors said.

New loans to harness the wind, sun and biodegradable waste will need extra government backing in a deepening recession, said Clayt Tabor, finance director at Midwest Wind Finance, a wind-farm developer in Minneapolis. Obama’s goal to double U.S. renewable- energy by 2012 may take years longer because even fully funded projects take at least three years to develop, he said.

Obama, more supportive of clean energy than George W. Bush, may struggle to shift quickly from coal-burning plants that spew global-warming gases. In Bush’s last three years, solar and wind production doubled, helped by easier financing and tax breaks that attracted loans from Lehman, now bankrupt, and insurer American International Group Inc., later taken over by the government.

“The project-development cycle is three to five years so you can’t just stop and start on a dime” in a tough environment, Brian Redmond, managing director of CP Energy Group LLC, a Boston-based renewable-energy advisory firm, said in an interview.

The new president repeated his call to double renewable power capacity in three years during his first weekly radio and video address as president on Jan. 24. He’s pressing Congress to pass an $825 billion economic-recovery package with provisions to aid green energy. House Democrats have begun work on the legislation.

If approved, they will come on top of $7.7 billion in tax breaks already available. These incentives, part of the October bank rescue, are only offered to investors earning profits.

Under the stimulus bill, eligibility for the $7.7 billion will be broadened to include investors with losses, a growing group in the recession. Lehman, which had agreed to make loans to developers such as Newton, Massachusetts-based First Wind, is in bankruptcy court. AIG has stopped lending on renewable-energy projects.

“Adjusting tax incentives so they are more broadly usable is the most important policy adjustment needed,” Bank of America Securities-Merrill Lynch said in a research note to clients. “Funding is sparse and demand is being affected by the depression as well as low fossil-fuel prices.”

The U.S. had renewable-energy generators capable of producing 28,721 megawatts of power in 2007, not counting hydroelectric dams, according to Energy Department data. A megawatt can supply about 800 average U.S. homes.