A coming-of-age moment is bearing down on the U.S. wind power industry, and proponents say it’s mostly ready, according to a November 15 article in Bloomberg Businessweek.
For a quarter-century, the industry has been supported by federal tax credits that helped it attract $250 billion in investments and create 100,000 jobs, according to the American Wind Energy Association, the article says. That support ends next year, but analysts and executives say the credits did what they were supposed to: made the industry competitive.
Established supply chains, taller towers, bigger rotor blades, and the use of artificial intelligence to boost efficiency have made wind power cheaper than coal and on a par with natural gas. And soon enough, offshore wind farms could expand the renewable energy source’s influence beyond rural states such as Texas and Kansas to the high-population corridors along the East and West coasts. “Wind has matured now,” says Chuck Grassley, the Republican senator from Iowa who first championed the tax credits in 1992. “It’s ready to compete.”
The full story is at www.bloomberg.com/businessweek.