Misinformed ideas about wind energy

This letter was submitted to the Washington Post responding to a previous Washington Post’s letter on wind energy.

Regarding Walt Hoge’s August 30 letter, offshore wind has delivered vast amounts of clean energy around the world for decades. The abundant offshore U.S. wind resource is close to large population centers and corresponds to periods of high demand, where wholesale electricity prices tend to be most expensive.

The performance-based federal incentive growing wind power has helped lower wind power’s costs by two-thirds over just six years, passing billions of dollars in savings onto consumers. Offshore wind prices can be locked in for 20 years or more, and as this technology advances here at home, a similar price decline for offshore wind can be expected.

There’s already enough land-based wind power installed today to reliably supply power for 20 million American homes and wind energy can supply 20 percent of U.S. electricity by 2030 using less land than half the size of Anchorage, Alaska.

Wind farms has attracted over $128 billion dollars invested into the U.S. economy over the last decade and research shows that for every dollar spent on federal energy incentives, wind received less than 3 cents. That equals a very good deal for U.S. taxpayers and an American success story with a bright future ahead.