Aug 7 2010
A recent report prepared by the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory indicates that China has overtaken USA as a premier emerging wind power market in the world. China has built 36% of its new projects during the year 2009 while the United States has commissioned only 26% during the period.
Though China has edged out USA for the top slot, United States still leads the world in total wind power production capacity with 35,000 MW, followed by China with 25.853 MW and Germany with 25,813 MW. Currently United States has made an investment of over $21 billion in wind power projects, and 28 states are involved in building new wind power projects. Wind generation in USA is led by Texas in erecting 2,292 MW new installations. Accord to the report, states such as Minnesota, Dakotas and Iowa meet around 10% of their energy requirements from wind source.
According to the report, the cost of wind power installations also were hiked up during the year 2009 resulting in an average cost of $2,120 per kilowatt power production. This rise in costs also made the investments in new wind power projects less attractive. More over, cost reductions in whole sale electric power pricing due to availability of cheaper natural gas also, did not favor the growth of wind turbine market. The report warns of further slump in electric power prices.
The report details about the down trend witnessed in the import of wind turbine parts from $5.4 billion in 2008 to $4.2 billion during 2009and also mentions about the growth in the number of wind turbine manufacturers from one in 2004 to 10 in 2009. It quotes the increase in size of the wind turbine hubs by 40% and diameter of rotors by 69% during the period.
Source: http://www.lbl.gov/