On the occasion of the World Wind Energy Conference WWEC2014 in Shanghai, WWEA has presented the key statistics of the World Wind Energy Report 2013. World wind energy capacity reached 318,529MW by end of 2013, after 282,275MW in 2012.
35,550MW of new wind capacity was added, the smallest growth since 2008, and after 44,609MW in 2012. The growth rate reached only 12,8%, the lowest level since modern wind power utilization has started around the world. Wind power contributes close to 4% to the global electricity demand. In total, 103 countries are today using wind power on commercial basis. China was still by far the leading wind market with a new capacity of 16,000MW and a total capacity of 91,324MW. The US market saw a dramatic slump and installed only 1GW, after 13GW in 2012. Asia has now the same installed capacity like Europe (119GW) and is expected to overtake Europe in 2014 as largest wind continent. The most dynamic markets with highest growth rates can still be found in Latin America and in Eastern Europe as well as for the first time in Africa, where Morocco showed a growth of 70%, the second highest growth rate of all countries, just behind Chile (76%). In some countries, wind power reached very high shares in the electricity supply; in Denmark (34%) and Spain (21%), wind energy has become the largest source of electricity; also Portugal (more than 20%), Ireland (more than 16%) and Germany (9%) have reached high portions. 7,4GW of offshore wind was installed by end of 2013, and close to one million small wind turbines. For the year 2020, WWEA sees a wind capacity of more than 700,000MW as possible.
