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The global wind power market grew by 31% in 2009 despite the financial crisis, adding 37.5-gigawatts (GW) of installations to bring capacity up to 157.9GW, the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) reports.
Growth was led by China, which saw an increase in capacity of over 100%, from 12.1 GW in 2008 to 25.1 GW at the end of 2009 with new capacity additions of 13GW, GWEC says. The US wind energy market installed nearly 10 GW in 2009, increasing the country’s installed capacity by 39% and bringing installed capacity to 35 GW.
“The continued rapid growth of wind power despite the financial crisis and economic downturn is testament to the inherent attractiveness of the technology, which is clean, reliable and quick to install,” says Steve Sawyer, GWEC secretary general.
“Copenhagen didn’t bring us any closer to a global price on carbon, but wind energy continued to grow due to national energy policy in our main markets and also because many governments in prioritised renewable energy development in their economic recovery plans,” he added.
GWEC said that the global market for turbine installations was worth €45bn ($63bn) in 2009, and that sector now employs around half a million people around the world.
“China is putting strong efforts into developing the country’s tremendous wind resource,” says Li Junfeng, secretary general of the Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association. He adds: “Given the current growth rates, it can be expected that the even the unofficial target of 150 GW will be met well ahead of 2020.”
GWEC says that the strong growth in the US market had been “against all expectations.”
Source: Recharge