WWEA industry breakdown

Ten years ago, the market for new wind turbines was just 4,000 MW, one tenth of the 2009 figure, according to the World Wind Energy Association (WWEA) in its 2009 report. Turnover of the wind sector reached US$70 billion in 2009, compared to $54 billion the previous year, it says.

"Within this political environment and as predicted in the World Wind Energy Report 2008, the finance sector has started to understand that wind technology is, in principle, a low-risk investment not only for the investors themselves, given the right policies are in place," explains a WWEA spokesman.

China continued on its steep upward curve, doubling its installation for the fourth year in a row, bringing it to the second biggest installer of wind energy behind the USA. Germany finished the year just below China, with 26,000 MW of installed capacity.

Overall, Asia accounted for the largest share of new installations (40.4 %), followed by North America (28.4 %). Europe fell back to the third place (27.3 %). Latin America showed encouraging growth and more than doubled its installations, mainly in Brazil and Mexico.

Based on this accelerated development, WWEA forecasts a possible global capacity of 1,900,000 MW by 2020.