The US Wind Industry Is Still Alive And Kicking, Despite Headwinds

---

Support CleanTechnica’s work through a Substack subscription or on Stripe.

---

US President Donald Trump has targeted the nation’s own domestic wind industry for destruction, taking down thousands of businesses and many more thousands of working households along with it. Down, but not out. The wind will continue to blow long after the current occupant of the White House (or what remains of it) leaves office as scheduled on January 20, 2029, and wind stakeholders are already in position to pick up the pieces.

The US Wind Industry Is Still Chugging Along

Long before Trump took office earlier this year, the US wind industry was already facing pushback from fossil fuel stakeholders and local residents. A growing number of counties have passed new restrictions on wind development in recent years, and Trump’s second term in office has exposed the vulnerability of the offshore wind industry to sudden shifts in federal policy.

Still, the latest U.S. Wind Energy Monitor report from Wood Mackenzie and the organization American Clean Power indicates that the domestic wind industry still has enough wind in its sails, so to speak, to survive at least over the next five years.

The new report covers H1 (the first six months) 2025 and beyond. The H1 end of things is rather gloomy, with wind installations down 15% compared to the same period in 2024. The record looks even worse on a single-quarter basis. “The Q2 U.S. wind market installed 593 megawatts (MW), down 60% compared to Q2 2024,” the new report notes.

However, moving out of H1 and into Q3, the coming months look brighter. The new report projects that the US wind industry is on track to install 3.8 gigawatts through the first nine months of 2025, outpacing the nine-month record of 2024.

“Despite the slowdown in Q2, activity is projected to pick up, with 51% of forecasted capacity to come online in Q4, rounding out the annual 2025 total to 7.7 GW,” the report summarizes.

The US Wind Industry Is Going To Beat Coal

The US wind industry would be in a better position for future growth without the abrupt shift in federal energy policy this year, but some projects will continue to trickle through the pipeline. The new report arrives at an average figure for new wind capacity additions of 9.1 gigawatts annually through 2029, for a total of about 46 gigawatts.

As may be expected, the report anticipates that new onshore wind farms will account for most of the additions, at 35.5 gigawatts. Only 6 gigawatts will come from offshore wind. Repowering projects (upgrades to existing wind farms) will add another 4.5 gigawatts. All together, the US will land at a total wind power generating capacity of 196.5 gigawatts.

To put that in perspective, in July the US Energy Information Agency reported that the total operating capacity of coal power plants in the US currently stands at 172 gigawatts. With a number of retirement scheduled to take place, that figure will drop to 145 gigawatts by the end of 2028.

Even if the Trump administration succeeds in delaying scheduled coal retirements, wind capacity is all but certain to grow beyond the 172 gigawatt mark by 2029, if the new Wind Energy Monitor assessment holds true.

But…will it?

The Cracks In The Anti-Wind Wall

Maybe, maybe not. Wood Mackenzie director of research Leila Garcia da Fonseca notes that the current surge in activity comes from projects already in the pipeline. Forthcoming proposals face stiff headwinds, especially in the offshore area.

“Recent federal stop-work orders and regulatory uncertainty have disrupted offshore wind sector, weakening already fragile offtake opportunities and exposing the high investment risk in U.S. offshore wind development,” explains Garcia da Fonseca, though she does affirm the accuracy of the five year, 46-gigawatt assessment.

Fair enough. For better or worse, the AI data center boom has lit a renewable energy fire under red state policy makers on the legislative side and the utility side, too. As with the solar industry, the US wind industry has proven time and again that it can bring more kilowatts online more quickly, and less expensively, than traditional power plants.

Examples of red state support for renewable energy have been piling up, beyond US Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), whose well-known advocacy for the US wind industry spans decades. In Nevada, for example, Republican Governor Joe Lombardo has been begging the US Department of the Interior to stop putting roadblocks in the way of the 6.2-gigawatt Esmeralda 7 group of solar projects. Citing his state’s forthcoming data center boom, Lombardo’s plea centers on a proposed transmission line that will benefit wind developers, too.

Then there’s Indiana. A growing number of county governments in Indiana have been pushing back against wind projects, solar projects, or both. However, state leaders are desperate to accommodate data center developers. “With energy demands anticipated to rise significantly in the coming years, especially due to the buildout of AI and data centers, the speed at which wind and solar projects can be built is in their favor,” the news organization Indy Star noted on October 20.

Republican Governor Mike Braun has tapped his energy secretary to come up with a solution. As reported by Indy Star, the state plans to unveil a map aimed at de-risking wind and solar proposals, by steering developers towards counties that have a track record of support for renewable energy.

Another example can be found in Wisconsin’s Republican-controlled state legislature, notorious for blocking wind projects in the early 2000s. The race for data center business has flipped the script. Now the state will become home to two new wind projects. Greenlit by the Wisconsin Public Service Commission, the two new wind farms are the first such approvals in almost 15 years.

More Signs Of A Renewable Energy Rebound

The Southeast region of the US does not have the advantage of optimal wind conditions. Louisiana, though, has been low-key pursuing its offshore wind potential. The leading utility Georgia Power is also poised to take advantage of new turbines designed for low-speed winds in the Southeast. On July July 15 the utility released a new Integrated Resource Plan that includes new renewable energy commitments of up to 4,000 megawatts by 2035, along with new energy storage additions.

Then there’s the Republican Governor of Virginia, Glenn Youngkin. Earlier this year Youngkin vetoed two bipartisan bills supporting small-scale clean energy projects, but he has been a consistent supporter of the massive 2.6-gigawatt Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project. CVOW is one of the few offshore wind projects to escape the Trump chopper, although that could change. Polling indicates that a Democrat will occupy the Governor’s office when the term-limited Youngkin sees his last term expire after Election Day in November, exposing CVOW to the same partisan attacks that have bedeviled offshore projects in Democratic-lead states.

For that matter, polling also indicates that Democratic candidates will occupy the majority position in the US House of Representatives after Election Day 2026. If and when that does occur, perhaps the House will take up its duties as a separate but co-equal branch of government with oversight authority as a check on executive over-reach by the President.

If you have any thoughts about that, drop a note in the comment thread. Better yet, find your representatives in Congress and let them know what you think.

Image: US wind industry capacity additions (cropped, courtesy of Wood MacKenzie/American Clean Power via email).