Update: We review the domestic progress and projections of wind energy supply .

<<<   A typical wind farm.  Prime property is expensive,  construction costs demand federal assistance, the turbines,  themselves,  are very loud and only 8 or 9 states see enough wind to make turbine generation possible and practical.

In an article at the Daily Kos, we find a very optimistic article with regard to wind energy and its supply on a national scale.

If the reader takes time to convert current supply into percentages,  she will find that the domestic supply of energy from wind,  is a nominal 4% of the total supply needed for domestic use,  with the hope that this total will rise to 6/7% by 2020.

I have not taken time to confirm these numbers.  They sound reasonable as statements of "fact."  But, the projection of a 20% supply of energy from wind,  by 2040,  is much more problematic.  Still,  10/12% does seem possible if not probable.  Understand that as the process of wind energy development advances,  the acquisition of land will slow as environmentalist concerns grow.

More than this,  optimum supply has been set at around 18% for the nation, by the folks who know about such things.  Understand  that this cannot happen without major increases in cost and construction complexities as to the development of  new and more capable power transmission systems (e.g.  "power grids").   Land acquisition and early-stage construction is one thing; the conversion of our nation's rather antique power-grid, is a very different matter.   Like a race against the clock,  the closing distance is always slower than the results at the beginning of the race.

Critical to the feasibility of wind power development is tax relief offerings to the construction industry.  The Daily Beast goes nowhere close to this issue.  Construction costs,  if not offset by tax breaks, may the death of wind energy development, domestically.  Currently,  cost-to-profit margins are upside down without tax relief in the form of the Production Tax Credit.  Because of the extreme costs involved,  production actually slowed to near zero in 2013 with the ordering of new wind turbines at "near zero."

Point of post?  To simply inform the reader of where we are, where we might be in the coming two decades, and why.  Natural gas remains our best option for the foreseeable future,  all the wind from Washington,  aside.