Wall Street mess worries wind power developers

[NickB79]

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/11/13/ndwind/

"Moorhead, Minn. — Massive wind turbines are an increasingly common sight across the upper Midwest. Developers eager to harness the ubiquitous prairie winds have poured billions of dollars into the region.

But Wall Street woes are slowing the pace of wind development."

snip

"Most analysts agree wind energy will continue to grow. But it's not likely to be the 25 or 30 percent annual growth the industry has enjoyed in recent years.

Xcel Energy is significantly slowing wind energy investment.

Vice President Mark Storeing says the company recently requested and received proposals to build wind energy projects that would produce 650-750 megawatts of power. But Xcel now plans to build only half of those projects."

Like I've said in the past, the recent growth in renewables is impressive, but the real test is if that growth can be maintained over the course of years and decades.

[phantom power]

1. My company is pursuing a wind-farm related biz plan with VC...

This has not been helpful.

[kristopher]

2. You can't take seriously a forecast like this ...

The one thing we know with certainty is that 2009 is going to bring with it an entirely new regulatory regime for renewable energy.

It is increasing evident that a great deal of infrastructure spending is going to focus on renewable energy and that is going to alter the entire decision making landscape.