Akademik

n.

The current high levels of investment in wind power as a source of renewable energy.

Touting what he called a "wind rush," Jerry Patterson, commissioner of the Texas General Land Office, said in an interview yesterday that he is determined to make Texas the epicenter of the wind industry, whether in manufacturing turbines for wind projects or establishing the farms themselves. Texas has 2,000 megawatts of wind farms operating on land; this is the state's second agreement for an offshore farm.

—Steven Mufson and Juliet Eilperin, "Offshore Wind Farm Is Approved," The Washington Post, May 12, 2006

The planned project would be an apt welcome sign from a region in the grip of a "wind rush".

Dozens of wind farms are up and running with hundreds more planned as developers scramble to take advantage of Scotland's blustery climate and lucrative subsidies for renewable energy.

Local businesses, environmentalists and politicians see a chance for Scotland, with its abundant wind and other renewable resources, to lead the world in finding ways to cut the carbon emissions that are widely blamed for global warming.

—Andrew Grey, "Scottish 'wind rush' whips up enthusiasm and anger," Reuters News, April 20, 2006

Ecogen is the largest independent company to enter what is fast becoming a "wind rush". The economic feasibility of wind farms has been helped by a government subsidy for sources of "non-fossil fuelled" electricity.

—Crispin Aubrey, "Sea West and Tomen Consortium to invest £70m in wind power," The Independent, August 6, 1991

This phrase is a play on gold rush — a wave of migration to a new territory where gold has been discovered — which entered the language around 1893. Now the "gold" is wind, and the migration involves dollars and equipment instead of people, and the territories are places where the winds blow strong and constant. A good example is Scotland, which is arguably the windiest country in Europe, and which at least one booster has described as "the Saudi Arabia of the renewables industry."