In 2008 U.S. investment in the wind power industry totalled $17 billion and saw wind energy output boosted by 8,300 megawatts. This was substantial enough to make the U.S. the world leader in wind power, overtaking Germany.

The U.S. now produces approximately 25 gigawatts of electricity from wind power, which is enough to provide power for seven million homes.

This investment boom in wind power is likely to slow down drastically this year despite the fact the Obama administration is looking for ways to reduce dependence on oil.

The credit crisis in the U.S. has devastated financing for large-scale wind power projects. Hopefully the economic stimulus bill will provide the wind power sector with a gust of help. Wind power jobs are already being cut and the momentum of 2008 is being lost.

The 30% renewable energy tax credits for wind power investments doesn’t mean what it once did now that companies are worried more about making any money at all. The result is very little concern for finding tax breaks compared with sound investments.

As we reported earlier, renewable energy tax credits could become grants that would be received without 60 days of a wind power investment. If that makes it through Congress it would result in a lot more wind turbines going up this year than if it’s only a tax credit.

A civil and environmental engineering professor at Stanford has conducted a study on “clean energy” technologies. Professor Mark Z. Jacobsen concluded that wind is the cleanest of the technologies. Other winners, in order, are concentrated solar (the use of mirrors to heat a fluid), geothermal, tidal, solar photovoltaics (rooftop solar panels), wave, and hydroelectric.

The lesser forms of the clean energy technologies include biofuels, nuclear, and “clean coal,” which Jacobsen says do not live up to their “clean” hype.

Canadian provincial governments have been making a big push to help wind energy flourish. The most recent example comes out of Ontario which just signed contracts to build six large wind farms. The farms will provide nearly 500 more megawatts to for the province.

While this is great news for the wind energy industry the sector is still looking for more assistance from next week’s federal budget.

This recent push into wind power started last year when Quebec approved $5.5 billion in wind power projects in the province. Enough to provide 2,000 megawatts by 2015.

Then it was Manitoba Hydro’s turn as they signed a deal to buy power from a 300 megawatt wind farm (the largest in Canada) for the next 25 years.

Beautiful British Columbia will be next since they are expected to approve as much as 1,000 megawatts worth of renewable energy contracts in the spring, much of which will be provided by wind farms.

This has proved invaluable to the wind power industry since securing such long-term contracts since it allows the companies to ease investor’s fears by providing the security of guaranteed income over an extended period.

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick has set a goal of developing 2,000 megawatts of wind power capacity by 2020.

“With the growing interest in wind turbines we see in communities across the Commonwealth [of Massachusetts] and the abundant wind resource we have off our coast, wind power is going to be a centerpiece of the clean energy economy we are creating for Massachusetts,” said Patrick.

It is expected that an offshore facility will make up part of the 2,000 MW, with the U.S. Minerals Management Service this week, with the release of its favorable environmental impact statement on the Cape Wind project.

Massachusetts and Texas have been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy for two Wind Technology Testing Centers in the country. The Governor noted how this move will not only make Massachusetts and Texas hubs for wind power research, but also boost the potential economic gain of technology development, entrepreneurship and jobs.

It’s official: The next big thing is looking to be wind power, folks. Can we get a hoo raah? Amongst the grim economic news comes the silver lining that one million people will be employed worldwide by the wind-power industry by the end of the decade, despite the impact of the financial crisis.

“It has been another record year for the industry. People say these growth rates can’t go on forever, but they keep on going on,” said Steve Sawyer, secretary general of the Global Wind Energy Council.

Although wind and solar power companies have faced financial difficulties caused by the continuing economic crisis due to the lack of available financing for wind and solar projects, it is unclear how profoundly it would reduce or delay demand and profitability. However, grid connections remain key to the future of wind energy in all parts of the world and newly elected U.S. president Barack Obama is looking to the current financial crisis to invest in this area.

“Renewable energy isn’t something pie-in-the-sky,” Obama told workers at an Ohio plant that produces wind turbine parts. “It’s not part of a far-off future. It’s happening all across America right now. With all the bad news going on out there, with all the news of jobs lost and businesses shuttered, jobs were created right here.”