Global wind energy industry installs 44.7GW of new capacity in 2012

Wind farms across the world added 44.711GW of capacity in 2012, taking the cumulative capacity to 282GW, according to a report released by Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC).

The 2012 figures represent an annual market growth of about 10% over 40GW in 2011, and a cumulative capacity growth of 19% over 238GW in the previous year.

The US added a record of 13.2GW of wind capacity last year as a result of tax incentives, which helped it to compete with China for the top spot.

China had seen a big drop from 18GW of new capacity in 2011 to 13.2GW in 2012 due to market consolidation and rationalisation.

Europe, which reported 12.4GW of new capacity, was led by Germany and the UK, with surprising contributions from ’emerging markets’ of Sweden, Romania, Italy and Poland.

Global Wind Energy Council secretary general Steve Sawyer said that while China paused for breath, both the US and European markets had exceptionally strong years.

"Asia still led global markets, but with North America a close second, and Europe not far behind," Sawyer said.

Germany, India and the UK followed the US and China in second position with 2GW installations each.

Besides China, Indian market had also seen a slow down due to lapse in policy.

The trade body, however, expects these two markets to pick up and the Asian dominance in the global wind market to continue even in the future.

China had the highest cumulative installed capacity of 77GW, ahead of the 60GW installed capacity in the US; Spain, India and UK took the remaining spots in the top five.

The MENA region had only one 50MW project completed in Tunisia; however, sub-Saharan Africa’s first large commercial wind farm came on line in 2012, a 52 MW project in Ethiopia.

"This is just the beginning of the African market, and with construction started on 500+ MW in South Africa, we expect Africa to be a substantial new market, where clean, competitive energy generated with indigenous sources is a priority for economic development," Sawyer added.