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Global wind power boom continues despite economic woes
February 05, 2010
Canada Newswire
China doubles installed capacity for fifth year running - Canada’s installed wind capacity increased by 40% in 2009
OTTAWA, Feb. 4 /CNW Telbec/ - The Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) today announced that the world’s wind power capacity grew by 31% in 2009, adding 37,500 Megawatts (MW) to bring total installations up to 157,900MW. A third of these additions were made in China, which experienced yet another year with over 100% growth. Meanwhile, Canada’s wind energy industry enjoyed a record year with 950 MW of new wind energy capacity installed in eight provinces - placing Canada 9th globally in terms of new installed capacity for the year. New wind developments represented more than $2.2 billion in investment, increasing Canada’s total installed capacity to 3,319 MW.
“The continued rapid growth of wind power despite the financial crisis and economic downturn is testament to the inherent attractiveness of the technology, which is clean, reliable and quick to install. Wind power has become the power technology of choice in a growing number of countries around the world,” said Steve Sawyer, GWEC’s Secretary General. “Copenhagen didn’t bring us any closer to a global price on carbon, but wind energy continued to grow due to national energy policies in our main markets and also because many governments have prioritised renewable energy development in their economic recovery plans,” he said.
