Wind (Eolic) Energy Facts and Figures from Around the World & The Future Growth of Wind Power
The World Wind Energy Association (WWEA) is an international association (non-profit) integrated by member located in more than 90 countries. The WWEA promotes, on a worldwide basis the deployment of wind energy and wind energy technology. This international association acts as a place to disseminate and communicate wind energy information to all the organizations involved in wind energy production, transfer, and distribution.
Wind Energy Facts
One of the main tasks of the WWEA is the elaboration of a yearly report about the current status of wind energy on a worldwide basis. The latest report has been published recently (2008) and provides an excellent view of eolic energy and its current status. Here are some highlights and interesting facts from this report.
-Worldwide capacity of wind energy generations has reached a total of 121,188 MW. More than 27,000 MW were added in 2008
- The rate of growth of wind energy has been estimated at 29% in 2008
- Electricity generated from wind turbines in 2008 equaled 1.5% of total electricity generated in 2008
-A 40 billion of Euros was total sales of the wind energy sector
-The wind energy sector has generated a total of 440,000 jobs worldwide
-The United States has taken the spot number one for the first time in history in terms of wind energy installations
-China is the most dynamic market for wind energy. China has doubled the number of installations for the third time in consecutive years
-Europe is showing stagnation in wind energy installations construction while North America and Asia are showing very dynamic markets
-It is estimated that a global capacity of more than 1,500,000 MW is possible by the year 2020
The Future of Using Eolic Energy
As the report shows prospects for eolic energy generation are encouraging. Many plants are planned to be built in 2009 with China being the number one spot. China plans to double (again) the number of installations to be built in 2009. In a recent international meeting, a study made by the leading independent research authority Energy Watch Group has identified an exponential growth in wind power capacity since the early 1990s. The study also mentions that the global wind power capacity is set to double in next three years. According to the study here are some of the main reason for wind energy to have this explosive growth: wind is an infinite resource supply, there is a global accessibility to the supply, there has been an increased competitiveness in price; wind energy has zero carbon emissions or hazardous waste and zero requirement for cooling water.
Sources:
World Wind Energy Report 2008. The World Wind Energy Association. Germany