The global wind market is expected to grow again in 2011 with the addition of more than 40 GW of new wind power capacity, according to a five-year industry forecast published by the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC).
The industry association not only believes that the global installed wind power capacity will more than double by the end of 2015, but that annual market additions will also reach just over 60 GW by 2015, up from 35.8 GW in 2010.
“2010 was a tough year also for our industry, but 2011 is looking up,” said Steve Sawyer, GWEC’s secretary general. “We’ve paid the price for the 2008/9 financial crisis last year, and now we’re back on track.”
GWEC’s assessment assumes an average growth rate of 18.2 per cent per year and says that activity in the industry over the next few years is partly due to strong levels of investment in 2010. “This investment will translate into an increasing level of wind power installations in the coming years,” said GWEC in a statement.
China will be the main driver of growth, followed by Europe, says GWEC. The North American market will remain subdued for the next two years due to uncertainty at the federal level in both the USA and Canada.
Overall, wind power investments reached a record level of $96 billion in 2010, up 31 per cent on 2009. In 2010 China accounted for almost half of the global capacity additions, with 16.5 GW added.
Ambitious long-term government plans, supportive policies and “staggering” levels of investment in China will continue to drive that market, says GWEC. Annual additions in China are expected to exceed 20 GW by 2015.
Europe will remain the second largest market to 2015, with capacity additions totalling 60 GW, bringing cumulative wind power installations up to 146.1 GW. While Germany and Spain will remain the leading markets, a larger number of other strong markets will make an increasing contribution.
In addition, large scale offshore developments are expected to account for a growing share of the new wind capacity in Europe, says GWEC.
In Latin America, encouraging developments in Brazil, Mexico, Chile and elsewhere lead GWEC to expect that at the end of 2015, the total installed wind capacity will have grown to 19 GW across the region, up from just 2 GW at the end of 2010.
“Wind power is now a truly global industry, with installations in around 80 countries. We expect that over the course of the next five years, additional markets will pick up in other parts of Asia, Latin America, and Africa,” said Klaus Rave, GWEC’s chairman.
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