This month saw the release of the Global Wind Energy Council’s wrap-up of 2011, and the figures show wind power continued to surge ahead in a global climate of political and economic uncertainty.
Today, around 75 countries worldwide have commercial scale wind power installations, with 22 of them already passing the 1 GW level. In 2011, just over 41,000 MW of new wind power was installed worldwide, bringing the total installed capacity globally to more than 238,000 MW. This represents an increase of 21%, with an increase in the size of the annual global market of just over 6%.
Despite government restructuring of the domestic sector, China is by far the global market leader in the uptake of wind power, nearly matching Europe, India and the UK combined for total installed capacity between January and December last year.
India reached another milestone; adding over 3000 MW of installed wind power in 2011. This is likely to go up to 5000 MW per year by 2015. Ongoing Indian government initiatives to create new policies will attract large quantities of private investments to the sector says the report.
Wind power in the EU maintained strong growth despite the economic crisis sweeping the continent, installing 9,616 MW of new wind energy in 2011, for a total installed capacity of 93,957 MW – enough to supply 6.3% of the EU’s total electricity needs. But according to Justin Wilkes, Policy Director of the European Wind Energy Association, without more effort by governments, the EU may fail to meet its climate targets.
"To achieve the EU’s long-term targets we need strong growth again in future years. A commitment from the European Union to put in place a binding renewable energy target for 2030 would send a very positive signal to potential investors."
The Americas also experienced strong growth in wind power, with the USA and Latin America growing by a total of more than 6,800 MW and 1,200 MW respectively. In 2011, Canada surpassed the 5,000 MW installed capacity mark, installing more wind energy than any year previously.
Australia is noted in the report as having installed 234MW of wind power capacity last year; bringing the country’s total by the end of 2011 to 2,224MW.
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