World Wind Watch | Green Energy News

March 7, 2004 – Vol.8 No.50

WORLD WIND WATCH.

Figures from the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) and the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) show that world total wind power capacity reached 39,294 megawatts by the end of 2003, an increase of 26 percent above the previous year.

The increase in capacity also represents a substantial investment. More than $9 billion was spent last year, up from $7 billion in 2002.

To date windpower worldwide can provide enough power for the equivalent of 9 million U.S. homes or 19 million European homes. Visit the EWEA at http://www.ewea.org/ and the AWEA at http://www.awea.org/

Ireland-based Airtricity, with U.S. partner Ridgeline Energy, has received planning permission for a 100-megawatt wind farm to be built in southeast Idaho. Construction for the project at Goshen is expected to begin in 2005.

The partnership Ridgeline Airtricity Energy has also signed development agreements for wind projects to be pursued in Iowa, Minnesota, New York and Pennsylvania. Visit Airtricity at http://www.airtricity.com/ .

For developers wishing to build wind projects on the Emerald Isle, or planners and policy makers considering wind development there, Sustainable Energy Ireland has publicly launched Ireland’s first Wind Atlas. Taking a new approach to wind maps, SEI has included wind resources at heights of 50, 75 and 100 meters, altitudes at which state-of-the-art wind turbines reside.

The maps also include areas in Ireland where wind power exceeds 500 watts per square meter and where wind speeds exceed 7.5 meters per second as well as the location of the power grid, urban areas and bodies of water.

Copies of the wind atlas are available on CD-ROM for 10 EURO through SEI at http://www.sei.ie/reio/reiobookshop.html (scroll down)