Significant Wind and Solar Power Growth seen in 2012

Despite the glocal recession solar and wind renewable energy continued to grow last year. according to recently released figures from the Worldwatch Research Institiute.

logo11 Significant Wind and Solar Power Growth seen in 2012

Solar power consumption increased by over 50% per cent, to 93 terrawatt-hours (TWh), while  the use of wind power increased by 18 per cent, to 521 TWh.  This still leaves hydropower as the world’s leading renewable energy, but solar and wind continue to dominate investment in new renewable capacity and are quickly becoming the highest-profile renewable energy sources.

However new investments in these energy sources declined during 2012. Global investment in solar energy in 2012 was $140.4 billion, an 11 percent decline from 2011 and wind investment was down 10 per cent, to $80.3 billion. It may seem odd then that the total installed capacities had grown so sharply in 2012, but that’s down to lower costs for both technologies.

Europe remains way ahead in terms of solar power and  accounts for just over three quarters of all  global solar power use in 2012. Germany alone accounted for 30 percent of the world’s solar power consumption and Italy added the third most capacity of any country in 2012 (3.4 GW). Spain added the most concentrating solar thermal power capacity (950 MW) in 2012 as well.

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Total installed global wind capacity increased  in 2012 by 45 GW to a total of 284 GW, an 18.9 percent increase from 2011. The majority of new installed capacity was in China and the United States (continuing the trend of previousyears) which reached total installed capacities of 75.3 GW and 60 GW, respectively.

The United States was the world’s top wind market in 2012. Overall capacity increased 28 percent as the country added 13.1 GW, double the amount it added in 2011.

The EU remained a dominant region for wind power, as it passed an important milestone by installing 11.9 GW of new capacity to reach 106 GW, representing 37.5 percent of the world’s market. Currently, wind accounts for 11.4 percent of the EU’s total installed generation capacity. Germany and Spain remained Europe’s largest wind markets, increasing their total installed capacity to 31.3 GW and 22.8 GW, respectively. The United Kingdom was third in new installations in 2012, at 1.9 GW, followed by Italy with 1.3 GW.

The well-documented Political instabilities  in Africa and the Middle East continued to slow growth there, but despite this installed capacity grew by 9.3 percent in 2012 compared with 2011’s rate of only 2.6 per cent.

Matt Lucky photo small11 Significant Wind and Solar Power Growth seen in 2012

Matt Lucky the report’s co-author and Sustainable Energy Lead Researcher at Worldwatch said:

“Although policy uncertainties and changes will likely challenge the growth of solar and wind in the future, these technologies are nonetheless well poised to grow. Declining solar technology prices, while challenging for current manufacturers, are helping solar to reach near grid-parity in many markets. With the decreasing cost of operating and maintaining wind farms, wind power is already cost competitive with conventional power energy sources in many markets.”