Financial meltdown slows wind-power

Investment funds flattened in 2008 after years of growth

Doyle is paid just over $35,000 a month for the seven wind turbines in his soybean and corn fields. Those turbines and thousands others across the Midwest the past few years were part of an unprecedented build-out for the wind-power industry.

That expansion is now drastically slowing as financing dries up for many projects because of the global economic crisis. Companies that bankrolled much of the boom

Firms like American International Group Inc., Lehman and Wachovia helped finance many projects by taking short-term ownership in exchange for the credits to help offset their own income.

Those three were among the biggest investors in the industry. Now, AIG is trying to survive the financial meltdown, Wachovia is being bought by Citigroup and Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy this year before being sold.

Even healthier companies that have helped finance the wind boom are being weighed down by the economy, meaning they aren’t making as much money so they don’t need the tax credits, said Peter Maloney, chief editor at Platts Global Power Report, an energy-industry magazine.

MSNBC