Wind Energy on the Rise Despite Federal Policy Reversal

New wind energy projects are on the rise in the United States despite the federal government’s recent U-turn on renewable energy, reports Adele Peters in Fast Company.

“In an executive order on his first day, Trump paused leases for offshore wind projects in federal waters. He also paused approvals for wind projects on federal land.” However, demand for renewable energy continues to grow, particularly as tech companies look to shore up energy sources for data centers. “But there are also practical and immediate reasons for the demand: Wind and solar are cheaper, in most locations, than building new gas power plants (or restarting closed coal plants, as Trump wants to do).”

According to Peters, because planning and building plants takes so much time, many projects currently being built were permitted and funded long before Trump took office. However, wind installations were the lowest in a decade in 2024, in part due to high interest rates, permitting delays, and uncertainty about tax credits. Now, projects planned for federal lands could be nixed by the Trump administration, which ordered a temporary pause on federal permits for any wind projects. 

Wind energy companies say they’re still seeing strong demand for new projects and that permits are still being issued, if slowly. Peters points out that “During Trump’s first term, wind power kept growing, with a record number of installations in 2020, despite a lack of support from the administration.”