Curious Cat Science and Engineering Blog » Global Wind Power Installed Capacity

February 28, 2008

Global Wind Power Installed Capacity

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.

by curiouscat Tags: Economics, Energy, Engineering, Students
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4 Responses to “Global Wind Power Installed Capacity”

mangoo Says:
February 28th, 2008 at 11:34 am
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).
CuriousCat » Solar Energy: Economics, Government and Technology Says:
March 27th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
I would say it is a pretty good bet to invest in technology such as: solar, geothermal, wind… Countries that create global centers of excellence in these areas are likely to benefit greatly…
CuriousCat: Wind Power Potential to Produce 20% of Electricity Supply by 2030 Says:
May 15th, 2008 at 9:45 am
“In 2000 there were 2,500 megawatts (MW) of installed wind capacity in the United States. By the end of 2007, the U.S. installed capacity exceeded 16,000…”
CuriousCat: Solar Heats Up Desert Real Estate Market Says:
July 8th, 2008 at 11:31 am
“Just 20 months ago only five applications for solar sites had been filed with the BLM in the California Mojave. Today 104 claims have been received for nearly a million acres of land, representing a theoretical 60 gigawatts of electricity…”