World Wind Watch | Green Energy News

February 12, 2006 – Vol.10 No.47

WORLD WIND WATCH.

The Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) says that the total installed wind power capacity on the planet now stands at 59,322 megawatts a 25-percent or 11,769 megawatt increase over 2004.

Global wind capacity has certainly grown. At the end of 1995 there were only 4800 megawatts installed.

The total expenditure for new equipment in 2005 was $14 billion (EUR 12 billion). That’s impressive, though a fraction of the $36 billion in profits earned by ExxonMobil in 2005, for instance.

The top five countries in wind power are now Germany with a total of 18,428 megawatts installed (1808 megawatts in 2005), Spain 10,027 MW (1764 in 2005), the U.S. 9149 MW (2431 in 2005), India 4430 MW (1430 in 2005) and Denmark with 3122 MW.

India overtook Denmark in 2005 for installed wind capacity. (Denmark didn’t install any wind capacity in 2005 to speak of.)

Other nations around the world are latching on to the power of the wind. Italy, the U.K., China, Japan and the Netherlands have well over 1000 megawatts each. Australia and Canada each now have about 700 megawatts of installed capacity. The continent of Africa shows up on the charts with Egypt’s 230 megawatts and Morocco’s 64. Canada showed the highest rate of growth at 53 percent.

There’s no reason to think that the numbers at the end of 2006 won’t be as impressive . For a full report on global wind capacity visit the GWEC at http://www.gwec.net/