Here is the May 2008 U.S. Department of Energy report on wind energy 20 Percent Wind Energy by 2030, which someone termed the best government report in many, many years along the lines of a national industrial policy.
The destructive nature of an uncertain investment climate is all too clear in the example of wind energy in the U.S. A national industrial policy is the best way to solve this problem.
California was the world leader of wind energy technology in the 1970s, but when the Reaganuts took power, and abandoned the idea of industrial policy, leadership shifted to Europe, where it remains today. In fact, the U.S. is right now only able to manufacture just over half the content of a large scale wind turbine (details are in the DoE report).
To achieve 20 percent wind energy by 2030 requires construction of about 100,000 wind turbines, at a cost of around $1 trillion, and an extensive reworking of the national electricity distribution grid, at a cost of around another $1 trillion.
But 20 percent wind energy by 2030 is a very modest goal. With the adoption of clear national goals, I believe we can achieve 50 percent wind energy by 2020. This is almost exactly the same goal recently advocated by U.S. wind energy pioneer Paul Gipe, One Million Megawatts of New Wind Capacity.
Industrial policy, people, industrial policy. Saving the financial system results in no forward progress without an industrial policy.
you are the media you consume.
$1 trillion spread over, say, 16 years is $62.5b/year, or 0.45% of that economy, even assuming ongoing stagnation.
Add $2.5b annually to the front years of that for the $20b in long haul transmission capacity required for 20% wind power ... it zooms up to 0.47% for the first half of that. I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.
