Wind capacity doubles every three years!
By the end of 2009, the world produces wind energy to the equivalent to the total electricity demand of Italy, the seventh largest economy of the world and equal to 2 % of global electricity consumption.
In some countries and regions wind has become one of the largest electricity sources, the highest shares being:
- Denmark: 20 %
- Portugal: 15 %
- Spain: 14 %
- Germany: 9 %
The wind sector in 2009 had a turnover of 50 billion €. The wind energy sector employed 550,000 persons worldwide. In the year 2012, the wind industry is expected for the first time to offer 1 million jobs.
The highest growth rates of the year 2009 with more than 100 % could be found in Mexico which quadrupled its installed capacity
- Turkey grew by 132%
- China +113%
- Morocco +104%
The average cost to buy and install wind turbines around the world is about 1.3 million euros ($1.75 million) a megawatt, according to New Energy Finance. A 100 MW wind farm, over the course of its 20-year lifetime, has the capacity to generate an amount of electricity that would require approximately 2.9 million tons of coal or over 62 billion cubic feet of natural gas to be generated by traditional U.S. grid sources.
