2009 Dec 29
Over 7,000 MW of wind power are expected to be installed this year in the U.S. That's down from 2008's record 8,545 MW, but that still would make it the second best year in the history of the industry. Not bad, at a time when the rest of the economy tanked and the value of your primary financial policy driver became all but worthless.
What events drove those highly respectable numbers? What pushed them down and, likewise, what kept them up? What other industry events defined 2009 and promise to impact the industry in the future?
A chronological look at just some such events in the wind energy industry tells the story behind the numbers, and even sheds a ray of light on what’s to come for 2010 and beyond. (For another year-in-review list that’s lengthier with a bit less detail, check out AWEA’s year-end release.)
Fall 2008: credit crisis and recession hit hard. For all intents and purposes, this year actually started last year, if that make sense. By October of 2008, the month that AWEA held one of its popular Wind Energy Finance and Investment Workshops in New York City, the wind industry market dynamics that would plague the first chunk of 2009 were already all too evident. As members of the industry gathered in the finance capital of New York City for the event, the financial crisis had already grabbed the economy by its neck, and lenders had put the breaks on lending—even to an industry with the kind of upside that wind energy was acknowledged to have.
At the workshop presenters spoke of capital “sitting on the sideline” and offered forecasts for the coming weeks and months that ranged from a short-term slowdown with business picking up swiftly once the initial shock of the crisis wore off, to significantly weakened prospects thanks to a financial meltdown they said would leave no industry, no matter how robust, untouched.
In addition to the credit crunch, which hit the capital-intensive wind industry extremely hard, the production tax credit (PTC), wind power’s primary policy driver, became largely impotent virtually overnight. In the recession, companies weren’t making profits, and so tax credits became valueless.
February 2009: Congress gets stimulus package done. Seeking to avoid a meltdown, in February the federal government stepped in to shore up the nation’s economy. Congress passed, and President Obama signed, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which included provisions deemed crucial to ensuring that the wind power industry hold onto its status as one of the economy’s few “bright spots,” to use AWEA’s favorite phrase.
Read more: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2009/12/this-year-in-wind-power
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