The Growth of Global Wind Energy

Wind energy continues to be one of the two dominate investments in new renewable capacity. Despite a reduction in investment capital, wind power continued its meteoric growth in 2012.

Here are some interesting stats on the growth of wind energy from the latest World Watch Institute press release for the latest Vital Signs Online Trend which was published at the end of July, 2013:

Global wind energy investment was down 10 percent, to $80.3 billion
Despite less investment revenue the lower costs in wind technology enabled the total installed capacities to grow Wnd power increased by 18 percent, to 521 TWh
Total installed global wind capacity increased in 2012 by more than 45 GW to a total of 284 GW
Wind energy increase 18.9 percent from 2011 The majority of new installed capacity was concentrated in China and the United States, 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
US wind capacity increased 28 percent and added 13.1 GW
US wind capacity doubled the amount it added in 2011
The US has seen Increased domestic manufacturing of wind turbine parts, improved technological efficiency, and lower costs
The greatest catalyst driving the growth of US wind energy was the threat of expiration of the federal Production Tax Credit (PTC)
The EU installed 11.9 GW of new capacity to reach 106 GW
EU installed capacity represents 37.5 percent of the world's market
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
Asia installed 15.5 GW of new installed wind capacity, the highest of any region in 2012
Political instability continued to slow growth in Africa and the Middle East
In Africa and the Middle East, installed capacity grew by 9.3 percent in 2012 compared with 2011's rate of 2.6 percent