Obama Green Energy May Lag Growth Pace of Bush Years

Bloomberg, by Jim Efstathiou Jr., January 26, 2009

President Barack Obama may find it harder to double renewable power capacity in three years during a financial crisis. The U.S. had renewable-energy generators capable of producing 28,721 megawatts of power in 2007. Doubling that may cost $150 billion. It costs about $2 million to install 1 megawatt of wind power. Solar power costs about $4 million to $8 million a megawatt. Wind developers added 7,500 megawatts in 2008 to bring total generating capacity to 24,000 megawatts but projects in 2009 could fall by half without the right financial aid from Congress. Solar power more than tripled in the past three years to 4,400 megawatts. Solar-energy developers already have projects under way to produce about 5,400 megawatts in three to five years.

Full article:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20090126/pl_bloomberg/aqsoxwtzussm_1