Global wind power is forecast to more than double from 194.4GW at the end of 2010 to 450GW by 2015 according to a five-year industry forecast by the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) – thanks to a growing trend toward offshore wind, primarily in the North Sea.
The report highlighted the strong global investment in wind power throughout 2010, which rose by 31 per cent compared to the previous year, and reached a record of $96 billion.
GWEC believes Europe will remain the second-largest market until 2015, with capacity additions totalling 60GW, bringing wind power installations up to 146.1GW with large-scale offshore developments in the North Sea expected to account for a growing share of the new wind capacity.
China is leading the growth in wind energy capacity accounting for more than half of the world’s 35.8GW of additional capacity brought on stream during 2010. The report expects this growth to continue which would result in China exceeding its target of installing 70GW of new wind power in the next five years.
Like China, India is also showing steady growth and contributed to Asia’s total operational capacity which reached 174.6GW by the end of 2010.
The report expects the North American market to remain subdued for the next two years, due to legislative uncertainty at federal level in the US and Canada. In the next five years, the total installed capacity in the region is expected to more than double to reach 94.2GW.
Brazil, Mexico and Chile will help drive wind energy capacity in Latin America from its current level of 2GW to 19GW by 2015.
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Source: sdi, June 29, 2011