U.S. has highest cumulative wind power capacity, China has most new capacity

Though the U.S. still has highest total capacity for wind power globally, China took the top spot for new installations in 2009 with 13 gigawatts, according to data released this week.

Worldwide, wind power capacity grew 31%, up 37.5 gigawatts to 157.9 gigawatts in 2009, according to the Global Wind Energy Council. A third of the increase came from China, which doubled its capacity from 12.1 gigawatts to 25.1 gigawatts.

“China is hard on our heels,” said Denise Bode, chief executive of the American Wind Energy Assn. in a statement.

But the U.S. is still leading in total capacity, installing nearly 10 gigawatts. That increases its total ability to product wind power by 39%, to 35 gigawatts.

Busting past early expectations that the country’s wind development could plunge up to 50%, federal funds from the Recovery Act helped boost the business.

Globally, the market for turbine installations was worth $63 billion in 2009, according to the wind energy council, which estimated that half a million people are now employed in the industry.

Asia was the largest regional market, with more than 14 gigawatts of new capacity, due to 1.3 gigawatts installed in India and smaller projects in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.

Europe also saw strong growth, with 10.5 gigawatts of new installations, including 2.5 gigawatts from Spain and 1 gigawatt from Germany.

-- Tiffany Hsu

Photo: Altamont Pass in Northern California. Credit: Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times.

Comments

[Edward]

China certainly seems to have more land available for installing wind turbines than the U.S. but, I am just happy to see countries around the world using more renewable energy and decreasing our need for fossil fuels. It does not really matter to me who has the highest capacity or who did what first.

Edward Wynn, (Wind power enthusiast)

[Tom Gray, American Wind Energy Association]

It's useful to compare the U.S. with Europe as a whole (an economic region of more similar size), rather than with individual European countries. At the end of 2009, Europe had 76,000 MW of wind (enough to serve the equivalent of 23 million U.S. homes) installed, or more than double the 35,000 MW installed in the U.S. Consider that at one time in the early 1980s, California alone had more than 80% of the world's installed wind capacity, and the size of the opportunity the U.S. has missed by doing without a meaningful energy policy becomes clear.

[barrie harrop]

Expect US could go out to 20,000 wind farms some just local community, many large up to 1,000MW,and go to 30% renewable, some say 50%.
"If the U.S. “gets the grid,” Mr. Engel said, there’s “no reason” the country couldn’t match tiny Denmark’s use of wind energy to supply 50% of electricity"
http://blogs.wsj.com/environmentalcapital/2009/02/12/wind-power-vestas-fortunes-hinge-on-us-wind-market/