Wind Power Growth Slows to 2007 LevelsAccording to an analysis to be released on Friday, the trade group reports having its slowest quarter since 2007, adding just 395 megawatts of wind power capacity.
For the year to date, new installations were down 72 percent.
The reasons are many.
For starters, as any number of unemployed Americans can testify, the nation’s economic engines just aren’t humming like they used to, and that means less demand for electricity over all. Natural gas, the chief fossil-fuel competitor to renewable sources of electricity, is also dirt cheap these days, making wind power a tougher sell for cost-conscious utilities and state regulators.
But the wind association — and advocates for increased renewable electricity capacity over all — argue that policy is a problem, too. Despite lots of talk on Capitol Hill about the hazards of fossil fuels, their contribution to climate change and the need for broad, long-term supports for the renewables industry, legislators have failed to reach agreement on what that might look like.
Absent such policies, they argue, investment is riskier, clean power deals are harder to broker and entrenched fossil-fuel sources like coal and natural gas enjoy an advantage.
While it's good to see that the demand for electricity is dropping, it's unfortunate that an industry in its infancy isn't getting the post-natal care it needs to thrive. If we're going to use energy we need to do it the cleanest way possible. It seems only fair that wind should get the same consideration at the public trough as fossil fuels and nuclear power.
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