Wind turbines installed on land. Onshore projects usually have shorter development and construction periods and lower capital cost per megawatt than offshore wind. Turbine size varies by market and project vintage: US turbines installed in 2023 averaged 3.4 MW, while newer platforms in Europe and China commonly reach 5–7 MW or more.

Wind turbines installed at sea. Fixed-bottom projects use monopile or jacket foundations; floating projects use anchored semi-submersible, spar or tension-leg platforms where water depth or seabed conditions make fixed foundations impractical. Offshore sites can achieve higher capacity factors than onshore sites, but require ports, subsea cables and specialized installation vessels.

Actual electricity generated over a period divided by the output that would have been produced at continuous full power. Capacity factor reflects resource quality, equipment performance, curtailment and downtime. EIA's preliminary 2025 US fleet averages were 91.0% for nuclear, 65.9% for geothermal, 35.3% for hydropower, 34.2% for wind and 24.4% for solar photovoltaic. Project-level results can differ substantially from fleet averages.

A power purchase agreement (PPA) is a long-term contract between an electricity generator and a buyer, usually a utility or a large corporate, to buy an agreed volume of electricity at a set price. PPAs underpin project finance across renewables: contracted revenue at a known price is what allows a wind or solar developer to raise debt against a project before it is built, and signed offtake is often an important condition for project financing. Corporate PPAs, where a company contracts directly with the generator, are now a common route to market for new wind and solar capacity. The same structure sits behind the nuclear supply deals signed by technology companies (Microsoft, Google, Amazon) with operators such as Constellation Energy and Talen Energy for round-the-clock data center power.

The annual fee an ETF charges to cover stated operating costs such as management and administration, expressed as a percentage of assets. Depending on the source it may be quoted gross or net of contractual fee waivers. It does not capture every cost of owning a fund: brokerage commissions, bid-ask spreads, any premium or discount to NAV, and — for futures funds — roll effects are all separate. All else equal, a lower expense ratio means less annual fee drag on returns.

The net value of the assets an ETF holds. AUM indicates fund scale, but it does not by itself determine liquidity or trading costs; bid-ask spreads, trading volume, market makers and the liquidity of underlying holdings also matter. AUM changes with market prices and fund inflows or outflows.

One. The First Trust Global Wind Energy ETF (FAN) is the only US-listed ETF dedicated to wind; its assets and expense ratio are shown in the table above. The Global X Wind Energy ETF (WNDY) was the only other one and is no longer available: Global X announced the closure on 31 July 2025, the fund stopped trading on Nasdaq on 22 August 2025 and liquidated at the end of that month. That leaves wind as a one-fund category in the US, so investors who want a second vehicle have to use broader clean energy and renewable power ETFs that hold wind alongside other technologies.

FAN is the only dedicated US-listed wind energy ETF, so US investors do not have a like-for-like wind-fund comparison. The best fit depends on the investor's requirements for fees, liquidity, geographic exposure, concentration and index construction. Broader clean energy ETFs provide a second route to wind companies, but they also hold solar, storage, grid and other businesses. The former Global X Wind Energy ETF (WNDY) stopped trading on Nasdaq in August 2025.

FAN tracks the ISE Clean Edge Global Wind Energy Index, which holds companies worldwide that are active in the wind energy industry. The index classes a company as a pure play when at least 50% of its revenue or generating assets come from wind, and as diversified when wind sits inside a larger business; pure plays take 60% of the index weight and diversified companies the other 40%. That puts turbine manufacturers and wind-focused generators at the top of the portfolio, with large utilities and industrial suppliers held underneath a 2% cap. The book is European-weighted, with Denmark, the United States and Germany the largest country exposures.

FAN’s expense ratio is shown in the table above. First Trust has contractually capped the fee at that level through at least 31 January 2027, so the net figure investors pay sits below the fund’s gross expense ratio until then. Because FAN is the only US-listed wind ETF, there is no second wind fund to price it against; the broad clean energy and renewable power funds that also hold wind are not a like-for-like comparison, since they spread exposure across several technologies. Fee is also not the whole cost of ownership: bid-ask spreads and any premium or discount to NAV apply on top.

No. Turbine manufacturers are one part of the portfolio. FAN also holds the developers and operators that build and run wind farms (Ørsted, EDP Renováveis), independent power producers (Northland Power, Boralex), and component and service suppliers spanning bearings, castings, carbon fiber, cable and offshore survey work (SKF, Timken, Toray, Prysmian, Fugro). A turbine maker’s earnings track order intake and input costs. A generator’s track power prices and the cost of project debt.

Global X’s board resolved on 31 July 2025 to liquidate the fund, citing assets that had stayed small with no expectation of sufficient growth. WNDY’s last reported net assets were $1.52 million at 31 May 2025, down from $2.15 million six months earlier (Form N-PORT). It stopped trading on Nasdaq on 22 August 2025 and liquidated on or around 29 August 2025. A separate Global X Wind Energy UCITS ETF, also ticker WNDY, still trades in Europe and was not affected by the US closure.