The WWEA released their World Wind Energy Report 2010.
The highlights of the World Wind Energy Report 2010:
The highlights of the World Wind Energy Report 2010:
- Worldwide capacity reached 196,630MW, out of which 37,642MW were added in 2010, slightly less than in 2009.
- Wind power showed a growth rate of 23,6 %, the lowest growth since 2004 and the second lowest growth of the past decade.
- All wind turbines installed by the end of 2010 worldwide can generate 430 Terawatthours per annum, more than the total electricity demand of the United Kingdom, the sixth largest economy in the world, and equalling 2,5 % of the global electricity consumption.
- The wind sector in 2010 had a turnover of € 40 billion and employed 670,000 persons worldwide.
- China became number one in total installed capacity and the center of the international wind industry, and added 18,928MW within one year, accounting for more than 50 % of the world market for new wind turbines.
- Major decrease in new installations can be observed in North America and the USA lost its number one position in total capacity to China.
- Many Western European countries are showing stagnation, whereas there is strong growth in a number of Eastern European countries.
- Germany keeps its number one position in Europe with 27,215MW, followed by Spain with 20,676MW.
- The highest shares of wind power can be found in three European countries: Denmark (21 %), Portugal (18 %) and Spain 16 %).
- Asia accounted for the largest share of new installations (54,6 %), followed by Europe (27,0 %) and North America (16,7 %).
- Latin America (1,2 %) and Africa (0,4 %) still played only a marginal role in new installations.
- Africa: North Africa represents still lion share of installed capacity, wind energy plays hardly a role yet in Subsahara Africa.
- Nuclear disaster in Japan and oil spill in Gulf of Mexico will have long-term impact on the prospects of wind energy. Governments need to urgently reinforce their wind energy policies.
- WWEA sees a global capacity of 600,000MW as possible by the year 2015 and more than 1,500,000MW by the year 2020.
