Wind Energy Stocks

Why It Matters

Harnessing wind is critical to electrifying everything.

At the heart of a decarbonized future with 100% clean energy will be renewable energy - solar and wind. Solar power is becoming cheaper, more widespread, and better. The same goes for wind.

Wind turbines are a proven, mature technology with an extensive global supply chain. Wind turbine manufacturers have improved the technology in recent years to maximize electricity produced per megawatt capacity installed to unlock more sites with lower wind speeds. They've become bigger with taller hub heights, and larger rotor diameters.

Today, onshore wind is the more widely adopted segment compared to offshore wind, but both have been expanding fast and their cost falling. Wind energy will soon be the least expensive source of installed electricity capacity. According to Project Drawdown, current costs are 2.9 cents per kilowatt-hour for wind, 3.8 cents for natural gas combined cycle plants, and 5.7 cents for utility-scale solar.

Companies and governments need to expand wind energy even more.

According to the International Energy Agency (p. 198), onshore and offshore wind farms combined had the capacity to generate 737 gigawatts of electricity, accounting for 9% of global electric capacity. To reach net zero emissions by 2050, wind capacity needs to grow to 8,265 gigawatts, or 25% of the overall energy mix. This requires 8.4% annual growth between 2020 and 2050.

China, United States and Europe have been at the forefront of expanding wind capacity over the last few years. Supporting policies by governments and corporate power purchasing agreements have been the propelling force in these regions. But to get to a zero-emission energy system, both onshore and offshore wind need to expand to more places and at a faster pace.

Here are the companies making it happen.

At Carbon Collective, we analyze every company that makes wind energy solutions to create a list of companies that are leading the renewable energy transformation.

We first take all of the wind energy companies that are publicly traded on US stock market. After excluding penny stocks whose share prices were lower than $0.50 in our last update, we see if the remaining companies derive more revenue from fossil fuel-dependent products and services than they do from wind energy-related business. If they do rely more on fossil fuel industries than on wind, we take them out.

So the Climate Index represents a list of all of the companies that are at the forefront of the Drawdown solution of wind energy. If you are a Carbon Collective member, you own all of these companies through the Climate Index.