The Global Growth of Windpower

According to the GWEC Global Wind 2006 Report, since 1995, as a result of wide-spread government support and the increasingly competitive economics of windpower production, global installed windpower capacity has grown at a CAGR of approximately 28% through to the end of 2006. According to GWEC, global installed windpower capacity grew to 74,223 MW (enough to power approximately 22.5 million homes) in 2006, up 26% from the 59,091 MW of installed capacity at the end of 2005. GWEC predicts growth in the windpower industry to continue, reaching 149,500 MW of global installed capacity by 2010. 

Europe was the first to embrace wind energy and now dominates the wind energy industry globally, with over 48,545 MWs or 65% of total global installed windpower capacity in 2006 according to GWEC. Within Europe, Germany and Spain have been the largest markets. Germany had 20,622 MW of installed windpower capacity at the end of 2006, which accounted for approximately 6% of that country’s total power consumption, while Spain had 11,615MW installed windpower capacity at the end of 2006, which accounted for approximately 9% of its total power consumption. North America is the second largest market in the world, accounting for 13,062 MWs in 2006. Despite the relatively rapid growth of windpower production in North America, the relative contribution of wind still lags behind Europe by a considerable margin (in North America, windpower production represents less than 1% of total power consumption). Management believes this indicates that a very significant growth and investment opportunity exists should Canadian windpower consumption grow to European levels.