Growth of Wind Energy

World wind energy capacity reached 74 GW by the end of 2006. It has been doubling every three years during the last decade and growth rates in the 2 years to 2006 were even faster. Wind power has grown faster than hydropower in its early years and in the last six years wind power growth has exceeded nuclear power growth. The rate of annual growth increased up to a 5 year CAGR of 28.5% in 2004 and dropped slightly to 26.3% in 2006.

Last year, wind power accounted for 1.7% of global installed generating capacity, but had a much higher share in a small number of countries. Because wind is intermittent and wind turbines have a lower load factor than base load nuclear and fossil fuel power stations, typically 25%-30% for wind and 65%-90% for nuclear and fossil fuels, less power is generated.

Wind power is now regarded as a mature technology and is the first of the renewable generating sources, since hydro power, to be termed a mainstream energy source.

The attraction of wind as a source of electricity which produces minimal quantities of greenhouse gases has led to ambitious targets for wind energy in many parts of the world. More recently, there have been several developments of offshore wind installations and many more are planned. Although offshore wind-generated electricity is generally more expensive than onshore, the resource is very large and there are fewer environmental impacts than with on-shore wind turbines. Furthermore, as with on-shore installations, the costs are now coming down systematically.

Whilst wind energy is generally developed in the industrialised world for environmental reasons and as a contributor to security of supply, it has other attractions in the developing world as it can be installed relatively quickly in areas where electricity is urgently needed and grid access is limited. In some instances it may be a cost-effective solution if fossil fuel sources are not readily available. In addition, there are many applications for wind energy in remote regions, worldwide, either for supplementing diesel power, which tends to be expensive, or for supplying farms, homes and other isolated installations.