The wind power business is a bit contradictory right now. It's showing signs of boom and bust seemingly all at once. The story of wind energy markets in two acts today. First, the Gulf of Mexico saw its first-ever auction of leases for offshore wind this summer. It was another sign of the Biden administration's desire to get more renewable energy online as fast as possible. Expectations were high, but results did not deliver. Two of the three patches of sea didn't get any bids at all. Hidden in the flop for this auction are some keys to what it takes to spark a whole new market, quickly. Then, the booming side of wind power: the job that's projected to be the fastest-growing in the U.S. is wind turbine service technician. Is it a "good" job? Reporter Darian Woods suits up to see a green-collar job above the clouds for himself. Today's episode is adapted from episodes for Planet Money's daily show, The Indicator. Subscribe here. The original Indicator episodes were produced by Cooper Katz McKim and Julia Ritchey with engineering by Valentina Rodriguez Sanchez and James Willetts. They were fact-checked by Sierra Juarez and edited by Dave Blanchard and Kate Concannon. Help support Planet Money and get bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
Hey there.
This is Felix Contereras, one of the co hosts of Alt Latino, the podcast from NPR Music, where we discuss Latinx culture, music and heritage with the artists that create it.
Listen now to the alt Latino podcast from NPR.
This is Planet Money from NPR.
Late last summer, Mike Salado was in his New Orleans office early.
A hurricane was brewing in the Gulf of Mexico.
But Mike was fixed on his screen for another big event for the Gulf.
See, Mike had helped set up the first ever auction for offshore wind farms in the region.
He works for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
That's a government agency that manages how the sea, owned by the government, is used for things like drilling oil or gas.
It was leasing out patches of water for companies to build giant wind turbines in the water and sell their electricity.
It was a lot of anticipation.
We were just waiting to see what those first bids would be.
A lot of excitement.
A lot of excitement.
And you can hear it in his voice.
I mean, look, Mike is a steady hand on this big government work, so, you know, he's appropriately measured.
But this auction could mean pretty high bids.
A similar patch of ocean near New York had gone for over a billion dollars.
And when Mike had asked around with developers about interest, this Gulf site, we.