Wind Power
Energy statistics.
The first 12 pages of this safe to open file contain all the statistics on Wind Power generation up to the end of 2005.
Thanks to this report, it makes it easy for us all to see how quickly wind power has become established as a major energy producer. The current wind turbines available produce 180 times more power than they did in 1990 and at less than half the cost. The total global power capacity from wind up to the end of 2005 stands at 59 Gigawatts (1 Gigawatt = 1 000 000 000 watts or 1 Billion watts or 1000 MWatts) which effectively replaces 59 large nuclear establishments which typically have an output of 1GW each.
A total of 14 billion USD was spent on wind power in 2005 and capacity grew by 24% from the previous year, as it has more or less done for each year since 1990. Since the energy industry itself predicts that 2000GW of new or replacement energy sources needs installing by 2030, there seems to be no end to the potential for wind energy growth, especially since the bulk of current wind generation is to be found in just 4 or 5 nations. With the world standing at over 190 nations (not all with huge areas for wind generation admittedly but there is scope for offshore development), wind power could play a very large role indeed.
The report says it all and has stats for each nation. Interesting reading.