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Bonn/Comibatore (WWEA), 7 February 2012 - The world market for wind turbines set a new record in the year 2011 and reached a total size of 42 Gigawatt, after 37,6 Gigawatt in 2010. According to the preliminary data gathered by WWEA and published on the occasion of the 3rd WE20 by 2020 conference in Coimbatore/India, the total capacity worldwide has come close to 239 Gigawatt, enough to cover 3 % of the world's electricity demand.
Amongst the individual countries, China kept its strong position reached a similar amount like in the previous year 2010: China installed around 18 GW of new wind turbines within 2011, coming to a total capacity of 63 GW, more than one fourth of the global wind capacity. The second largest market for new wind turbines was again the USA with 6,8 GW, followed by India (2,7 GW), Germany (2 GW) and a surprisingly strong Canada with 1,3 GW of new installed capacity. Spain, France and Italy added each around 1 GW.
A strong increase in wind power utilization can be observed especially in the emerging markets, like China, India, Brazil, and Mexico. This opens new windows for further growth, as these countries do have an increasing need for electricity which can be matched by wind power in a very economic, safe and timely way. On the other hand, several of the European markets showed stagnation or even decrease. The US market presented itself stronger than in 2010, however, the mid-term prospects are not very bright, due to a lack of clarity regarding the political support schemes.
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