Over the past 30 years, the cost of wind energy has significantly decreased, due to both capital cost reductions
and performance improvements. However, from roughly 2004 to 2009, continued performance increases were not
enough to offset the sizable increase in capital costs of this time period, resulting in an overall increase in the cost of
wind energy. Nevertheless, as capital costs have moderated from their 2009–2010 levels, the cost of wind energy has
fallen and is now at an all-time low within fixed wind resource classes.