According to a report by Navigant Research, the United States is now on top of the game when it comes to the development of wind power, reporting the most installations of wind turbines in 2012. GE Wind, a U.S. company, is also at the top of the wind turbine market, taking up 15.5% of global market share.
Between 2000 and 2011, Danish wind company Vestas took the market lead. Vestas dropped to 14% in 2012, giving GE Wind just enough room to sneak by to the top.
The U.S. installed a total of 13,124 megawatts of power in 2012. China came in at a close second with 12,960 megawatts, followed by Germany, India, and the United Kingdom. The world currently has 285.7 gigawatts of wind power, with 44.9% of it installed in 2012 alone.
The industry isn’t expected to slow down, either. Navigant predicts that the wind market value will grow to $109.8 billion in 2017, up from $74.2 billion in 2012. It is also expected to grow from generating 2.62% of the world’s electricity in 2013 to 4.8% in 2017. One of the biggest benefits to the future of wind is that companies are also starting to diversify their product lines and develop products that accommodate winds in varying altitudes and climates.
It’s likely that the U.S. saw such a positive bump because of the Wind Production Tax Credit, which will hopefully be made permanent, especially after reports like this. It sounds like as good of a time as any to redirect our money to where it really counts, which means getting rid of gas and oil subsidies, and enhancing the development of more wind and solar instead.
Image CC licensed by USDAgov: Wind farm in Oklahoma
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