[Pops]

I've said several times that our current economic doldrums are a really bad thing for the deployment of alt energy. After all, with lower demand there is no incentive to build new capacity of any kind.

Combine that with elimination of .gov money (remember the jibes at Gore during last year's snowstorm? - those guys just got elected to congress) and all the hype around fracked gas, and it's seems unlikely we'll see a continuation of the boom - bubble (?) in wind power installations.

New US wind turbine installations have slowed significantly this year, compared to 2009, and the decline is having consequences. Among other fallout, Suzlon is mothballing a four-year-old wind turbine factory in Minnesota and laying off the remaining 110 workers, due to a lack of new orders. While the industry pins most of the blame for the slowdown on insufficiently aggressive federal energy policies, it suddenly occurred to me to wonder whether wind power, like housing, might have been caught up in an investment bubble that has finally popped, somewhat belatedly.

Energy Outlook

[efarmer]

I thought Bubble In The Wind was an Elton John song. Anyhow and more on topic, I think the wind power movement is still strong but not being goosed by US Federal money as much as it was due to so many other energy projects also on the menu for bucks.

[Pops]

As for 2009, the charts show that installations did fall dramatically until the implementation of the Treasury stimulus grant program, which injected $1.7 B into wind projects last year and another $2.9 B this year.

Same link.

[Lore]

That was “Bubble in the Bathtub”, by Kansas, 1977.

Back on topic. You also have to consider that with the newly reformed government, subsides and tax incentives may not hold up in the short term. At best, I don’t see support for wind energy getting more aggressive. Until, that is, another future oil shock happens. At which point it’s like saving the last bullet for yourself.

[efarmer]

WC Fields is one of my all time favorites. 1 minute in on this he replies to his daughter introducing him to Mr. Og Ogillby, that his name sounds like "Bubbles in a Bathtub". I know I am dangerously close to being off topic Pops, but this is after all about wind power, isn't it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpDD0eOq-0o