Wind Power - Wind and Solar Power Systems - page 9

FIGURE 2-2

Declining cost of wind-generated electricity. (Source: AWEA/DOE/IEA.)

technology by national programs and market incentives. The International
Energy Agency (IEA), with funding from 14 countries, supports joint
research projects and information exchange on wind-power development.

2

These countries are Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy,
Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, the United
Kingdom, and the United States of America. By the beginning of 1995, more
than 25,000 grid-connected wind turbines were operating in the IEA-member
countries, amounting to a rated power capacity of about 3,500 MW. Collec-
tively, these turbines are producing more than 6 million MWh of energy
every year. The annual rate of capacity increase presently is about 600 MW.
According to the AWEA and the IEA, the 1994, 1995, and 1997 installed
capacity in countries listed in Table 2-1 were 3,552 MW, 4,776 MW, and
7,308 MW, respectively. The 1995 sales of new plants set a record of 1224 MW
($1.5 billion), boosting the global installed capacity by 35 percent to nearly
4,776 MW. The most explosive growth occurred in Germany installing
500 MW and India adding 383 MW to their wind capacities. New wind plants
installed in 1996-97 added another 2,532 MW to that total with an annual
growth rate of 24 percent.
Much of the new development around the world can be attributed to
government policies to promote the renewables energy sources. For example,
the United Kingdom's nonfossil fuel obligation program will add 500 MW
of wind power to the UK's power grid within this decade.
A 1994 study, commissioned by the American Wind Energy Association
(AWEA) with Arthur D. Little Inc., concluded that in the 10 overseas wind
farm markets, between 1,935 MW and 3,525 MW of wind capacity would be
added by the year 2000 ( Table 2-2 ) . This translates to between $2 to
$3.5 billion in sales.