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(Reuters) - A prominent energy research firm slashed its five-year outlook for new U.S. wind energy projects by 40% on Tuesday, citing Trump administration policies and concerns about the economy.
Wood Mackenzie expects the United States to install 45.1 gigawatts of wind, both onshore and offshore, through 2029. It had originally forecast installations of 75.8 GW over that period, the firm said in a statement.
U.S. power consumption is expected to rise to record highs in 2025 and 2026, jumping nearly 3% this year from 2024's all-time high, the Energy Information Administration said last month amid growing demand from data centers dedicated to artificial intelligence.
Wind energy was already facing a slowdown in the United States before President Donald Trump in January issued an order to pause new federal wind leasing and permitting, calling wind turbines ugly, expensive and harmful to wildlife.
"We're not going to do the wind thing. Big, ugly wind mills. They ruin your neighborhood," he said. Former President Joe Biden saw wind power as vital to his strategy of decarbonizing the U.S. power sector to fight climate change.
The U.S. wind market was the smallest it has been in a decade last year with the installation of 5.2 GW compared with 7 GW in 2023. Wind installations had been almost double that amount in 2021 and 2022 ahead of the expected expiration of a federal tax credit for clean energy, which was later extended for a decade in the Inflation Reduction Act in August 2022.
"While we expect the market to rebound somewhat, ongoing uncertainty around future US wind policy and economic pressures will likely constrain growth in the near-term compared to previous forecasts, despite sustained demand for power," Wood Mackenzie research analyst Stephen Maldonado said in a statement.
(Reporting by Nichola Groom; Editing by Howard Goller)
