U.S. Wind Energy: Sluggish in 2009, Better in 2010, Strong in 2012

SUGAR LAND--September 21, 2009--Written by John Egan for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--After a record-setting year in 2008, wind power is on target for a mediocre 2009, but prospects for 2010 and beyond are extremely bright, Shane Mullins, Industrial Info's Vice President of Product Development - Power Industry, said in an interview. "Last year was a great year for wind power installations, so good, in fact, that a lot of projects scheduled for construction in 2009 were pulled into 2008. But last year's collapse of the tax equity market cut new wind construction in half." Last year, construction began on more than 9,000 megawatts (MW) of new wind power in the U.S., but through mid-September this year, construction had begun on only 4,162 MW of new wind projects, according to data collected by Industrial Info. "For all of 2009, we'll be lucky if we see construction begin on a total of 4,500 MW of new wind projects," said Mullins.