Utilities embracing wind power

Solar power has been racing ahead in the renewable energy boom. But wind is now moving fast is in the left lane, and signalling to pass. As solar prices have rapidly declined, so has the cost of wind power projects. Now many utilities are adding wind capacity as quickly as they can get it online.

Xcel Energy plans to spend $3.5 billion on renewables, mostly wind, over the next five years, more than double what it spent over the previous 10 years.

Nichola Groom from Reuters has more on wind power's growth in 2017.

A year after Congress extended generous tax credits for renewable energy projects, the U.S. wind industry is thriving.

Solar power companies, meanwhile, are hunkering down for a rough 2017.

The tax credit renewal has boosted the long-term outlooks for both industries. But in the short term, the subsidies are far more attractive for wind power, which has spurred utilities to launch wind projects while they scale back or delay solar installations.

Advances in wind turbine technology are also opening up new locations for development and driving a wave of spending to upgrade existing projects.

In the last few weeks, power companies with large renewable holdings - including Southern Co, NextEra Energy Inc and Xcel Energy Inc - have announced plans to invest billions of dollars in wind.

As developers have scaled back solar plans, wind projects under construction are approaching record levels, and new power contracts for wind facilities are up 39 percent so far this year, according to the American Wind Energy Association.

Xcel Energy this year announced a major strategy to boost wind energy, with its Chief Executive Ben Fowke saying the cost of projects is lower now than it will be for at least a decade.

“This was the time to take advantage of wind,” he said. "While it's on sale, let's get it."

Xcel plans to spend $3.5 billion on renewables, mostly wind, over the next five years, more than double what it spent over the previous 10 years.

Fowke said he expects his company will focus on solar again in coming years, noting that some of its coal plants are scheduled to be retired after the wind credit becomes less attractive but before the solar tax credit is scaled back.

“Solar, just like wind, will continue to improve in cost,” he said. “The best time to bring on a lot of large scale solar will be towards the end of this decade.”