English - Nooteboom Giants on the Road Magazine English - Nr. 6 - 2019 | Page 35

THEME
Wind energy is now used worldwide. Interesting emerging markets are
Russia, Argentina, Saudi-Arabia and Vietnam. And for the longer term
the Philippines, Indonesia, Nigeria and Iran are mentioned as interesting
growth markets. In Europe the growth in the coming five years will
be much lower than the worldwide figures. Lengthy procedures and
stringent regulations restrict the growth in Europe. Everyone wants to
back the switch to clean energy, but no one likes to see a windmill in
their back yard. Via political decisions about the levels of subsidies, the
government decides the pace at which we can switch to wind energy.
The cost of wind energy will in the coming years become lower than
electricity generated by fossil fuels. Up to 2022 the growth in Europe
will be limited to about 7% per annum. After that the outlook is more
favourable and from 2030 onwards at least 50% of all windmills will have
to be replaced by new, more efficient ones. If another suitable energy
carrier can be found – for instance hydrogen – the windmills will after
2050 disappear again from the densely-populated regions in Western
Europe.
TOP 10 NEW INSTALLED CAPACITY JAN-DEC 2017
France
South Africa
Rest of the world
Turkey
Finland
Italy
Brazil
PR China
In 2017 wind turbines were installed worldwide with a total capacity of
52,492 MW. This increased the overall capacity to 539,123 MW, a growth
of 11%. Of that capacity only 3% are in the sea, but the market for
offshore windmills is growing rapidly, especially due to the construction
of large wind parks in the North Sea. The most striking development
in 2017 is the large reduction in price per kWh. Major tenders for new
wind farms in Morocco, Mexico and Canada were offered for a price of
approx. US $ 0.03 per kWh. And off the Zeeland coast a wind park will
be constructed that can operate without relying on any subsidy. 2017
was a record year in terms of installed capacity in Europe, with Germany
and England as frontrunners. The top five worldwide in 2017: China, the
USA, Germany, India and Spain.
Canada
Brazil
France
JAN-DEC
2017
India
United
Kingdom
Spain
United
Kingdom
India
USA
Germany
THE FIGURES
TOP 1
Country MW % Share Country
PR China 19,660 37 PR China
USA 7,017 13 USA
Germany 6,581 12 Germany
United Kingdom 4,270 8 India
India 4,148 8 Spain
Brazil 2,022 4 United King
France 1,694 3 France
Turkey 766 1 Brazil
South Africa 618 1 Canada
Italy
Finland
535 1 5,182 10 Rest of the w
Total TOP 10 47,310 90 Total TO P1
World Total 52,492 100 World Tota
Rest of the world
Source: GWEC
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