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The U.S. and China are now locked in a race for the top of the global wind industry. Just yesterday, the AWEA announced that the U.S. has passed German to become #1 in the world with wind power installations. Meanwhile, China's total capacity has doubled for the 4th year in a row.
- The massive growth in the US wind market in 2008 increased the nation's total wind power generating capacity by 50%. The new wind projects completed in 2008 account for about 42% of the entire new power-producing capacity added in the US last year, and created 35,000 new jobs, for a total of 85,000 employed in the sector in the US.
- Global wind energy capacity grew by 28.8% last year, even higher than the average over the past decade, to reach total global installations of more than 120.8 gigawatts (GW) at the end of 2008. Over 27,000 MW (27 GW) of new wind power generation capacity came online in 2008, 36% more than in 2007. The 120 GW of global wind capacity in place at the end of 2008 will produce 260 TWh and save 158 million tons of CO2 every year.
- Wind energy is now an important player in the world's energy markets. The global wind market for turbine installations in 2008 was worth about 36.5bn EUR or 47.5bn US$.
At year's end, however, financing for new projects and new orders for turbines and components slowed to a trickle as the financial crisis began to hit the wind sector.
"The U.S. wind energy industry turned in a record-shattering performance in 2008, establishing wind as one of the leading sources of new electricity generation in the country and a job creation dynamo," said AWEA CEO Denise Bode. "At the same time, it is clear that the economic and financial downturn have begun to take a serious toll on new wind development. We look forward to working with President Obama and the new Congress on policies to restore the industry's vital momentum and achieve President Obama's goal of doubling renewable energy production in three years."
Meanwhile China is fast on its way to overtake Germany and be the new #2 by 2010. The Chinese government has identified the development of wind energy as one of the key economic growth areas. The growing wind power market in China has also encouraged domestic production of wind turbines and components, and the Chinese manufacturing industry is becoming increasingly mature, stretching over the whole supply chain.
What this means for us in activist-land is this...
Encourage your US Senator to support the House DOE Grant Program (within the both the House and Senate economic recovery bills) which best addresses the need to monetize Renewable Energy Tax Credits. This grant program breaks the link between project financing and the stalled tax equity markets. The Senate bill leaves renewable developers at the mercy of the severly diminshed tax equity markets by requiring developers to find partners with sufficient tax appetities. Not an all too easy feat to accomplish these days.
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The U.S. and China are now locked in a race for the top of the global wind industry. Just yesterday, the AWEA announced that the U.S. has passed German to become #1 in the world with wind power installations. Meanwhile, China's total capacity has doubled for the 4th year in a row.
