Wood Mackenzie cuts five-year US wind energy outlook 40 per cent on Trump policies

Energy research firm Wood Mackenzie slashed its five-year outlook for new US wind energy projects by 40 per cent on Tuesday, citing Trump administration policies and concerns about the economy.

Wood Mackenzie expects the United States to install 45.1 gigawatts of wind, both onshore and offshore, through 2029. It had originally forecast installations of 75.8 GW over that period, the firm said in a statement.

US power consumption is expected to rise to record highs in 2025 and 2026, jumping nearly three per cent this year from 2024's all-time high, the Energy Information Administration said last month amid growing demand from data centers dedicated to artificial intelligence.

Wind energy was already facing a slowdown in the United States before President Donald Trump in January issued an order to pause new federal wind leasing and permitting, calling wind turbines ugly, expensive and harmful to wildlife.

"We're not going to do the wind thing. Big, ugly wind mills. They ruin your neighborhood," he said.

The US wind market was the smallest it has been in a decade last year with the installation of 5.2 GW compared with 7.0 GW in 2023.

Wind installations had been almost double that amount in 2021 and 2022 ahead of the expected expiration of a federal tax credit for clean energy, which was later extended for a decade in the ironically-named "Inflation Reduction Act" in August 2022.

"While we expect the market to rebound somewhat, ongoing uncertainty around future US wind policy and economic pressures will likely constrain growth in the near-term compared to previous forecasts, despite sustained demand for power," Wood Mackenzie research analyst Stephen Maldonado said in a statement.

(Reporting by Nichola Groom; Editing by Howard Goller)