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Wind Power in Poland
Photo: GWEC |
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Brussels, 3 February 2010.
The Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) today announced that the
world’s wind power capacity grew by 31% in 2009, adding
37.5 GW to bring total installations up to
157.9 GW.
A third of these additions were made in
China, which experienced yet another year of over
100% growth.
“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. Wind power has become the power technology of choice a growing number of countries around the world,” said
Steve Sawyer, GWEC’s 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 said.
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Wind Power in Poland
Photo: GWEC |
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Wind energy is now an important player in the world’s energy markets.
The global wind market for turbine installations in 2009 was worth about
45 bn EUR or 63 bn US$.
GWEC estimates that around half a million people are now employed by the wind industry around the world.
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Wind Power in Australia
Photo: GWEC |
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The main markets driving this significant growth continue to be
Asia, North America and
Europe, each of which installed more than
10 GW of new wind capacity in 2009.
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Wind Power in Brazil
Photo: GWEC |
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China was the world’s largest market in 2009, nearly doubling its wind generation capacity from
12.1 GW in 2008 to
25.1 GW at the end of 2009 with new capacity additions of
13 GW.
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Wind Power in China
Photo: GWEC |
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“The Chinese government is taking very seriously its responsibility to limit CO2 emissions while providing energy for its growing economy. China is putting strong efforts into developing the country’s tremendous wind resource. 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,” said
Li Junfeng, Secretary General of the Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association.
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Wind Power in China
Photo: GWEC |
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Newly added capacity of
1,270 MW in India and some smaller additions in
Japan, South Korea and
Taiwan make
Asia the biggest regional market for wind energy in 2009, with more than
14 GW of new capacity.
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Wind Power in India
Photo: GWEC |
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However, the
US continues to have a comfortable lead in terms of total installed capacity. Against all expectations, the
US wind energy market installed nearly
10 GW in 2009, increasing the country’s installed capacity by 39% and bringing the total installed, grid-connected capacity to
35 GW.
In early 2009, some analysts had foreseen a drop in wind power development of as much as 50%, but the implementation of the
US Recovery Act with its strong focus on wind energy development in the summer reversed this trend.
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Wind Power in USA
Photo: GWEC |
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“The U.S. wind energy industry shattered all installation records in 2009, chalking up the Recovery Act as a historic success in creating jobs, avoiding carbon, and protecting consumers,” said
AWEA CEO Denise Bode.
“But U.S. wind turbine manufacturing is down compared to last year’s levels, and needs long-term policy certainty and market pull in order to grow.”
Europe, which has traditionally been the world’s largest market for wind energy development, continued to see strong growth, also exceeding expectations.
In 2009,
10.5 GW were installed in
Europe, led by
Spain (2.5GW) and
Germany (1.9 GW).
Italy, France and the
UK all added more than
1 GW of new wind capacity each.
“It is a remarkable result in a difficult year” said
Christian Kjaer, CEO of the European Wind Energy Association.
“The figures, once again, confirm that wind power, together with other renewable energy technologies and a shift from coal to gas, are delivering massive European carbon reductions, while creating much needed economic activity and new jobs for Europe’s citizens.”
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Wind Power in USA
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“Wind energy is already making a significant contribution to saving CO2 emissions. The 158GW of global wind capacity in place at the end of 2009 will produce 340 TWh of clean electricity and save 204 million tons of CO2 every year,” concluded
Sawyer.
“As we see in Europe and the US, wind power is now often the most attractive option for new power generation, both in economic and environmental terms, and for improved supply security.”
03.02.2010
http://www.gwec.net/index.php?id=30&no_cache=1&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=247&tx_ttnews[backPid]=4&cHash=1196e940a0
More wind power capacity installed last year in the EU than any other power technology
More new wind power capacity was installed in the
EU in 2009 than any other electricity-generating technology, new statistics published today by the
European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) reveal.
39% of all new capacity installed in 2009 was wind power, followed by gas (26%) and solar photovoltaics (16%).
Europe decommissioned more coal and nuclear capacity than it installed in 2009.
Taken together, renewable energy technologies account for 61% of new power generating capacity in 2009.
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Wind Power in Germany
Photo: GWEC |
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Investment in new European wind farms in 2009 reached €13 billion, including €1.5 billion offshore.
10,163 MW of wind power capacity was installed across the
European Union – a 23% increase compared to 2008 installations – made up of
9,581 MW onshore (up 21% from last year) and
582 MW offshore (up 56% from last year).
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Wind Power in Germany
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2009 is the second year running that more wind power capacity has been installed than any other electricity-generating technology, and wind’s share of newly installed capacity increased from 35% in 2008 to 39% in 2009.
It is also the second year running that renewable energies have accounted for the majority of new investments.
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Wind Power in Denmark
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“It is a remarkable result in a difficult year” said
Christian Kjaer, CEO of EWEA.
“The figures, once again, confirm that wind power, together with other renewable energy technologies and a shift from coal to gas, are delivering massive European carbon reductions, while creating much needed economic activity and new jobs for Europe’s citizens.”
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Wind Power in Spain
Photo: GWEC |
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The countries with the biggest share of new capacity installed in 2009 were
Spain (24% - 2459 MW), followed by
Germany (19% - 1917 MW), Italy (11% - 1114 MW), France (11% - 1088 MW) and the
UK (10% - 1077 MW).
Wind power’s total capacity in the
European Union has now reached
74,767 MW, up from
64,719 MW by the end of 2008 with Germany remaining the
EU country with the largest installed capacity, followed by
Spain, Italy, France and the
UK.
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Wind Power in Spain
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The wind capacity installed by the end of 2009 will in a normal year produce
163 TWh of electricity, meeting 4.8% of total
EU power demand (According to the latest figure from Eurostat, final electricity consumption in the
EU-27 was 3,372 TWh in 2007).
Commenting on prospects for 2010,
Kjaer added:
“I am quite optimistic about the medium-term outlook for wind power in Europe, but project finance is still tight and it is clear that more orders must be announced in the coming months for the sector to repeat the 10 GW installed this year.”
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Wind Power in Poland
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As well as
EWEA releasing European statistics, global figures were issued by the
Global Wind Energy Council.
“Globally, close to 35 GW of new wind capacity was installed in 2009, bringing the total installations up to almost 158 GW – this is a 31% percent increase from 2008. In addition to the developments in Europe, the growth was mainly driven by China and the US” said
Steve Sawyer, Secretary General of the Global Wind Energy Council.
For more information contact:
Paolo Berrino
EWEA
paolo.berrino@ewea.org
+32 2 400 10 55
http://www.gwec.net/index.php?id=30&no_cache=1&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=249&tx_ttnews[backPid]=97&cHash=b58774879f