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"The total number of small wind turbines installed all over the world reached 730'000 units as of the end of 2011 after 656'000 units in 2010. These small wind turbines represent a total capacity of around 576 MW (end of 2011)" says the "2013 Small Wind World Report Update" by World Wind Energy Association (WWEA). This report was released by WWEA on March 21, 2013 on the occasion of the 4th World Summit for Small Wind during the New Energy fair in Husum, Germany.
According to WWEA, today, more than 330 manufacturers of small wind turbines have been identified in 40 countries on all continents, and another estimated 300 companies are manufacturing equipment for the small wind industry.
The largest share of the small wind turbines can be found in two countries, China (500'000 units/225 MW) and the USA (151'000 units/198 MW), followed by the medium sized markets with 2-22'000 installed units and 5-50 MW total capacity: UK, Canada, Germany, Spain, Poland, Japan and Italy. In 2020, WWEA expects that the total installed small wind capacity will reach 5 GW. The market for new small wind turbines will have a volume of around 1 GW in the year 2020.
In spite of a vibrant small wind sector in many countries, only few governments are offering specific support policies for small wind. Less than ten countries are offering sufficient feed-in tariffs for small wind, and there is almost a complete lack of support schemes in the developing countries, where the demand for small wind turbines would be huge, especially in non-electrified areas. Only in China, small wind turbine contributes today on a large scale to rural electrification, which is also thanks to the relatively modest price level of small wind turbines in the country.
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