Wind Industry Snapshot: FPL Group

While future U.S. outlooks are important, the news isn't a major decrease in terms of megawatts, he said, adding that he has been reassuring clients that the news isn't a sign of a trend.

"I don't see that this is going to be indicative of all developers; I don't think we're going to see a 25 percent cut from everyone," he said. "I don't think this is a forerunner of doom for installations in the U.S. There are quite a number of other players willing to step up and take the place of FPL."

Companies such as MidAmerican Energy Co. (OTC ticker: MDPWK) in Iowa, Westar Energy (WR) in Kansas and the California utilities are becoming more active in wind, for example.

FPL is trying to show it is being cautious, Tringas said, to counterbalance the fact that it had a "terrible" third quarter -- the worst in 35 years -- in terms of its wind resource.

"Honestly, I would have been surprised if the biggest player in the industry had just kept trucking along," he said. "FPL has huge exposure to wind, obviously, so [the fact that] they would try to cut that back is not really surprising. We might be seeing more different players fielding the bulk of that growth [in wind]."

Ron Pernick, a principal with Clean Edge, said that while he expects to see more of this in the short term, he is still bullish on clean energy in the long term.

"Companies are cutting investments across the board, so it's not just about renewables," he said. "I think there's no doubt that there's significant uncertainty in the marketplace, that credit is tight and that that's impacting the decision-making processes of quite a number of organizations. Renewables don't exist in a vacuum and aren't separated from the vagaries of the market."