US Senate Republicans will reject an effort by their counterparts in the House of Representatives to cut back the production tax credit (PTC), the wind sector’s main fiscal incentive that underpins $50bn in planned investment through 2021, a top industry leader predicts.

“We’re confident at the end of the day that they will win this debate,” Tom Kiernan, chief executive of the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), told a conference here of anxious wind energy customers, financiers, project developers and supply chain executives.