The global wind industry installed just over 41,000 MW of wind power in 2011, bringing the world’s total installed capacity to more than 238,000 MW, the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) reported.

That represents a 21 percent increase, with an increase in the size of the annual global market of just over 6 percent. Today, about 75 countries worldwide have commercial wind power generators installations, with 22 of them already passing the 1 gigawatt level.

“Despite the state of the global economy, wind power continues to be the renewable generation technology of choice”, said Steve Sawyer, GWEC secretary general. “2011 was a tough year, as will be 2012, but the long-term fundamentals of the industry remain very sound. For the second year running, the majority of new installations were outside the OECD, and new markets in Latin America, Africa and Asia are driving market growth.”

According to the newly released GWEC annual market statistics, China consolidated its position as global market leader, with a cumulative capacity of more than 62,000 MW, despite having faced a challenging year. “2011 was not an easy year for the Chinese wind turbines manufacturers industry,” said Li Junfeng, secretary general of the Chinese Renewable Energy Industry Association. “However, in the end, the industry has come out quite well, not only surviving the year, but also becoming more resilient to the various challenges. In the coming year, the industry will adapt to the government’s new requirements as well as those of the market. We expect the industry will grow stronger and more competitive in the next year.”

For India, 2011 installations pushed India’s total capacity to just over 16,000 MW. “India reached another milestone with adding over 3,000 MW of wind power installed in 2011,” said D.V. Giri, chairman of the Indian Wind Turbine Manufacturers Association. “This is likely to go up to 5,000 MW per year by 2015. Ongoing initiatives of the Indian government to create new policies will attract large quantities of private investments to the sector.”

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