Wind Energy Investing

Energy and Capital

Wealth Daily editor Ian Cooper explores why T. Boone Pickens is so bullish on the future of wind energy, and why you should follow him...

Note: Part of this article originally appeared in Wealth Daily.

U.S. consumers are slightly aggravated.

Living in world of flawed seasonal adjustments, we were just told that gas prices fell 2% last month.

Huh, you say? You paid much more? So did we. But that's what happens when gas prices rise 5.6% in April, and the economists are allowed to statistically readjust, smoothing for seasonal oddities.

You see, historically, gas prices rise in April as we near warmer weather months and summer driving season. Taking that into consideration, the government adjusts its data to reflect the expected rise in gas prices, underscoring trend variations

And since gas prices did not rise as much as they've historically risen in April, the adjustment showed that prices fell in April.

But flawed stats aside, energy costs are skyrocketing.

Americans want a solution... and they want it now. $127 a barrel oil is just another reason why Americans want new energy solutions. Natural gas is nearing $11.50. Electricity costs are skyrocketing. And Americans, and the rest of the world for that matter, want a solution now.

Domestically, there's the Bakken solution and the solar solution. But now there's talk of wind power solutions.

Twenty years from now wind energy could produce 20% of America's electricity.

An Energy Department study found that wind energy could generate 20% of U.S. electricity by 2030, as compared to today's one percent.

The good news — The Energy Department report finds that achieving a 20% wind contribution to U.S. electricity supply would:

• Reduce carbon dioxide emissions from electricity generation by 25 percent in 2030.
• Reduce natural gas use by 11%;
• Reduce water consumption associated with electricity generation by 4 trillion gallons by 2030;
• Increase annual revenues to local communities to more than $1.5 billion by 2030; and
• Support roughly 500,000 jobs in the U.S., with an average of more than 150,000 workers directly employed by the wind industry.

To achieve 20%, wind turbines would have to produce 300,000 megawatts of power, compared to today's generated 16,000 megawatts.

It's doable.

And it should come as no surprise that billionaire investors are lining up for a piece of the coming wind energy boom, including T. Boone Pickens.

Read the rest of the article here