Texas-based windpower, already the cheapest in the world, is set for further expansion. Yesterday the Texas Senate approved a massive increase in renewable power. With just a third of the population of the UK, it already has 40% more windpower at 1400 MW, with a new mandate increasing that to 5880 MW by 2015.

So why is Texas windpower so inexpensive?

It's the much lower subsidy married to some geological features, ridges, that accelerate wind speed. The US-based Production Tax Credit costs between 1.5 and 1.8 cents per kilowatt hour. This translates into a contracted price between the operator and the electricity supplier at under US 3 cents a kilowatt hour, or just under 5 cents with the PTC added back in. Meanwhile Britain and particularly Germany hand out subsidies perhaps 4 times higher, making it less and less popular to the consumer, and notably, the politician. 

The irony - for Europeans - is that in Texas the Renewables Portfolio Standard was originally passed by Governor George Bush in 1998 and Texan Republicans are driving it today. As well they might, it's no longer a European Industry. Just take a look at these listed stocks, General Electric - now the 2nd largest manufacturer in the world of wind turbines and the globe's largest wind farm operator - Florida Power and Light.