The top five countries in terms of installed capacity are:
- Germany (22.3 GW – gigawatts)
- USA (16.8 GW)
- Spain (15.1 GW)
- India (8 GW)
- China (6.1 GW)
Global capacity was increase by 27% in 2007. Record installations in US, China and Spain:
Wind energy has a considerable impact on avoiding greenhouse gases and combating climate change. The global capacity of 94 GW of wind capacity will save about 122 million tons of CO2 every year, which is equivalent to around 20 large coal fired power stations.
“We’re on track to meeting our target of saving 1.5 billion tons of CO2 per year by 2020”, said Steve Sawyer, “but we need a strong, global signal from governments that they are serious about moving away from fossil fuels and protecting the climate.”
Meeting energy needs using wind power is growing very rapidly, which is a great thing. It is still a small contributor to our overall energy needs but every bit helps.
Related: USA Wind power capacity – Capture Wind Energy with a Tethered Turbine – Wind Power Technology Breakthrough
Some countries perform the so called “repowering” – where they are replacing their oldest wind turbines with more efficient ones.
On the other hand, wind turbines devastate the environment a lot (“optically”, IMO).
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