Will the U.S. Harness the Wind? Prospects for Wind-Generated Electricity

Abstract

Within the last few years, wind power has emerged as the only commercially competitive renewable energy source. Wind power has the potential to meet up to 20 percent of future U.S. electricity demand and develop into a worldwide industry worth hundreds of billions of dollars. Factors combining to create new opportunities for wind power include (i) continual increases in performance, reliability, and cost-effectiveness of modern wind turbines, (ii) a need to reduce the environmental costs of fossil fuel use, (iii) the move towards a competitive American energy market, and (iv) a renewed public and government desire for energy alternatives. Appropriate tempo­rary government policies could reduce uncertainty in the U.S. energy market and spur wind power growth, just as similar efforts helped develop fossil fuels and nuclear power. This paper argues that supportive and consistent government poli­cies are the key to the success of wind power in the United States.