Worldwide push for wind power whips up huge currents

By Douglas Sutton Jun 30, 2006, 4:00 GMT

Cork, Ireland - County Cork in south-western Ireland offers the kind of picture-book landscape straight from a tourism brochure - gently rolling hills, picturesque villages with colourful pubs, and cattle and sheep grazing in pretty pastures.

But a drive along some of the back roads these days also reveals another new feature, one which is now quickly spreading the world over: Atop some of those picture-perfect hills stand up to a dozen towers with huge propellers twirling in the wind.

Ireland, a country 95-per-cent dependent on fossil fuels, is starting to discover wind energy in a big way - like many other countries around the world.

At the end of 2005, the world's nations had added some 11,300 megawatts (MW) of installed wind power capacity, reaching 59,000 MW (59 Gigawatts/GW), according to the World Wind Energy Association (WWEA) based in Bonn, Germany.

Europe continues to be the heavyweight in the wind power field, with a total of 40.9 GW installed capacity or 69 per cent of the world total, followed by America (US, Canada, Mexico) at just over 10 GW and Asia at 7.02 GW.

Still lagging far behind are the Australia/Pacific region with an installed windpower capacity of just 572 MW at the end of 2005, and Africa, at only 252 MW, according to the WWEA.

Germany, with 18.43 GW, is the leader both in Europe and worldwide, followed by Spain at just over 10 GW. Third worldwide was the United States with 9.15 GW installed wind power capacity at the end of 2005.

Both the WWEA and the Brussels-based Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) are certain that the wind power sector is due for further strong growth, with much of the expansion now foreseen not only in Europe but also in the Asian region, for several reasons.

The higher oil prices go, the comparatively more competitive does wind-generated electricity become, they say. Countries seeking to meet their Kyoto carbon emissions reductions targets now also regard wind as a viable alternative, they add.

Ongoing technology improvements will assure that more electric power can be produced with greater efficiency from sites, both onshore, and, increasingly, offshore, the organizations also argue.

Finally, there is an increasing realization that wind power development also translates into jobs - 235,000 worldwide, according to the WWEA - and economic activity as new wind engineering equipment installed in 2005 reached 14 billion dollars, according to the GWEC.

'Wind energy today is not only a viable option to generate electricity in a sustainable and affordable way, but has, in several countries, become one pillar of the energy generation system,' WWEA president Anil Kane commented on the 2005 figures.

Noting that 48 governments had introduced laws and regulations to support renewable energy development, Arthorous Zervos of the GWEC added: 'The overall picture confirms that the right political framework is crucial to sustain the growth of wind power around the world and to open new markets.'

According to WWEA projections, the total world installed wind power capacity will double from current levels to around 120,000 MW by the year 2010.

In fact, as the director of policy at the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA), Christian Kjaer points out, Europe has already reached European Union targets well ahead of time.

'The European market has already reached the 2010 target ... of 40,000 MW five years ahead of time,' he commented, citing an increasing number of countries, such as Portugal and France, now stepping up their efforts.

'By 2010, wind energy alone will save enough greenhouse gas emissions to meet one-third of the European Union's Kyoto obligation,' Kjaer predicted.

But while Europe continues to dominate, major strides are being registered elsewhere - particularly in India, which last year boosted its wind power capacity by a whopping 48 per cent to 4,430 MW to move past Denmark to assume fourth place in the world.

'We are witnessing unparalleled growth in the wind energy sector,' the Indian Minister for Non-Conventional Energy Sources, Vilas Muttemwar, noted. 'Nearly all the installed wind capacity has come from the private sector.'

India's wind engineering sector estimates that the country has the potential for as much as 100,000 MW - nearly 25 times the current level - in wind power. At the moment, 95 per cent of the installed capacity is focused in seven states, with Tamil Nadu alone accounting for 50 per cent of India's wind power generation.

Meanwhile, the United States wind power industry is generating strong growth figures, amid an upbeat overall mood after President George W Bush gave his strongest endorsement yet to alternative sources of energy in his State of the Union speech last January.

Bush has even set a goal for wind power to provide 20 per cent of US electricity, a challenging step from its current 0.6 per cent level.

In 2005, the US wind power sector boosted its installed capacity by 36 per cent to reach 9.15 GW, enough to serve the equivalent of 2.3 million homes, according to the American Wind Energy Association.

Industry analysts said this US expansion was a direct result of the extension of the so-called production tax credit (PTC) which gave investors the security they needed to continue to put money into wind park projects.