When pitching wind power projects to investors, one of the standard questions is always: what if the wind doesn't blow? Well, since the wind industry began cranking out power in the early 70s, that hasn't been much of a problem. You can call it a case of extremely bad timing if you want, but as the world economy has taking a dive towards uncharted territory, even the wind in Texas has been slowing down -- and I don't mean that figuratively.

According to wind developer FPL, wind conditions over the 3rd financial quarter were the least productive in the last 3 decades in the Great Plains -- go figure. Over the quarter, wind power generation came in 38% below expected totals, down 47% in September alone. At a time when even T. Boone Pickens is being forced to consider a scaled-down version of his grandiose west Texas wind farm, bad news about wind power's profitability is definitely unwelcome news for renewable energy supporters -- not to mention investors.