"China continues to
lead the world in wind capacity additions, having increased its capacity
a remarkable 40 percent since 2010," said Konold. "But a gap remains
between this installed capacity and the amount of wind power that is
actually available for use in the country. Because of grid connection
challenges and other issues, China is struggling to use all of the
electricity generated by its turbines."
Despite large
increases in installed wind power capacity, several Chinese provinces,
including Inner Mongolia and Gansu, have actually lost a significant
portion of their generation capacity because of technical problems. Over
the next five years, China plans to invest more than US$400 billion to
make improvements to its electrical grid that will enable it to fully
integrate its total installed wind capacity by 2015.
In 2011, the United
States accounted for approximately 17 percent of global wind power
capacity additions. Although the country generated 27 percent more
electricity from wind in 2011 than in 2010, wind power still accounts
for less than 3 percent of total U.S. power generation, according to the
report. Konold credits much of the growth in U.S. wind power capacity
to the federal Production Tax Credit (PTC), which helped to finance
approximately 4,000 megawatts of new capacity by reducing corporate
income tax by 2.2 cents for every kilowatt-hour produced. But if the PTC
is not extended beyond its scheduled expiration date at the end of this
year, he cautions, the industry could be negatively affected.
The report also
discusses wind power developments in the European Union, where Germany
regained its position as regional leader for installed capacity.
Currently, wind accounts for almost 8 percent of the country's
electricity consumption. Although Spain added only a third of total EU
capacity since 2008, wind power accounts for almost 16 percent of the
country's electricity consumption. Economic instability has had some
negative impacts on European wind power, however, pushing future growth
projections down and potentially hampering investment.
Worldwide, wind power
prices fell to $1.2 million per megawatt in the first half of 2011,
mainly because of improvements in supply chain efficiency and economies
of scale. Competition from Chinese manufacturers and their excess
capacity to build machines and flood the market also played a role. In
addition, the capacity factor of wind turbines (the ratio of actual
output to nameplate capacity) continues to rise as better technologies
enter the market, further driving down turbine costs. Combined, these
factors are expected to bring down the cost of wind energy 12 percent by
2016, making onshore wind cost competitive with coal, gas, and nuclear
power.
"Global wind power
growth looks very strong and is on a continued rise, largely because of
China's incredible level of investment," said Konold. "Withhold that,
and the picture looks more muddled. Developed economies are not reaching
their fullest potential due to financial and policy uncertainty, and
many developing economies are running into technical problems, despite
slightly stronger growth in wind power capacity. Although continued
growth in wind power won't be as strong as it could be, as the supply
increases and prices fall, wind energy is quite likely to continue its
upward trend."
Further highlights from the report:
- Global installed wind power capacity grew 21 percent in 2011,
lower than the 2010 rate of 24 percent and markedly lower than the 2009
rate of 31 percent.
- Nearly $75 billion was invested in global wind energy installations in 2011, a 22 percent decrease from 2010.
- Although the United States lags behind Europe and China in offshore wind power capacity, the U.S. Department of Energy plans to make available $180 million over the next six years to support up to four innovative wind farms off the coasts or in the Great Lakes.
