Wind Powering America: Goals, Approach, Perspectives, and Prospects; Preprint

While wind development activity in the United States has dramatically increased over the last 3 years, it has been mainly driven by policy mandates in the investor owned utility community. Also, while significant wind development has and is now occurring in the Northwest, the Great Plains, the Rocky Mountains, Texas, and several eastern states, there remain a number of states that have excellentresources that are essentially undeveloped. Additionally, the U.S. federal agencies represent the largest institutional load in the world, and thus are a potential large market for green (wind) energy. Rural America is economically stressed and traditional agricultural incomes are seriously threatened; wind development in these windy regions offers one of the most promising 'crops' of the 21stcentury. Public power serves these communities, and local development of wind with low-cost financing appears to be competitive with new conventional fossil energy sources.