Experience and the Evolution of Installed Costs of Wind Power in the United States**NOTE DAY CHANGE TO THURSDAY

Abstract: I investigate empirically the relationship between accumulated experience completing wind power projects and the installed costs of wind generating capacity in the United States for the period 2001-2009. I develop a measurement framework that: (i) disentangles experience from contemporaneous determinants of cost --- in particular, input prices, scale economies, and technical change; and (ii) allows for alternative measures of experience and multiple channels through which experience can accumulate. For a variety of specifications, I find evidence of modest firm-specific learning-by-doing but no evidence of knowledge spillovers across firms. I also find evidence consistent with firms being able to purchase experience from and share experience with competitors via acquisitions and joint ventures, respectively. Finally, I find evidence that firms' experience depreciates rapidly over time. These findings suggest that the cost-reducing benefits of experience in wind capacity installations are fully captured by the entity that undertakes these installations (and, subsequently, any acquiring entity thereof), rather than by other participants in the industry.