Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Wind energy industry in US has potential to become independent of subsidies

Morningstar, a stock and fund analysis firm, contends that the U.S. wind industry is developing to the point where it may become independent of government subsidies.

Morningstar points to the growing presence of large, multinational firms like General Electric, Siemens and ABB in the wind industry space. The latter are European firms (German and Swiss), and they are both investing in the U.S. - definitely a good thing! All these well-capitalized and experienced manufacturers have a good shot at getting industry costs down to the point where they are sustainable without government subsidies - at present, wind energy only has a positive return on investment with the subsidies.

Should these players succeed, this will be very good for renewable energy. It's not stated in the article, but when cap and trade legislation passes, this will be an additional push towards renewables, since they will become cheaper relatively to carbon-heavy fuels. For those interested, the article mentions some stocks to watch.

Disclosure: I subscribe to Morningstar.

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