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Mastering the market

The lapse of the Production Tax Credit (PTC) sent the wind industry into a downturn last year, and it looked like wind was not ready to compete head to head with other energy resources without the nearly 30% subsidy the PTC provides. That may be changing this year. A combination of factors, with the PTC at the centre, is pushing US wind development to its best year ever. The Northwest is developing more than 1000 MW of wind without any public mandates and states are putting up turbines because customers of green pricing programs are demanding it. The same market forces that are driving the huge push for gas turbines in the US are also driving wind development. In a market that is paying dearly for electricity, wind is looking very good.