Global expansion of wind energy continues II

"Wind energy capacity in Australia almost doubled in the last 12 months with 380 MW of wind energy capacity installed at the close of 2004. Wind energy is one of the fastest growing clean energy sources because it is proven, quick to build and economically viable", said Ian Lloyd-Besson, President of AusWEA. "Besides being clean and green, wind energy brings investment, drought-proof farming income and jobs to rural communities. Australia has some of the most energyful and abundant untapped wind resource on the planet and a grid capacity that can potentially accommodate up to 8,000 MW of wind energy with minor adjustments. Even if we were to develop just half of this, the regional employment benefits and export opportunities would be enormous."

"2004 was a record year for the Canadian wind energy industry with 122 MW of new installed capacity. It is certain that this record will be shattered in 2005 and recent developments in Federal and Provincial energy policy promise a 10-fold increase in Canada's total installed wind energy capacity over the next five years", said CanWEA President Robert Hornung.

"China's anticipated entry into the global renewable energy market is expected to have a profound impact on the global industry. We have spent a lot of time and energy learning from the successes and failures of our partners in Europe and around the world", said Li Junfeng, Secretary General, CREIA, Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association.

"India has witnessed unprecedented growth in the wind energy sector. During the last fiscal year i.e. 2003-2004, wind energy capacity in India grew by more than 35%. Wind energy is today recognized in the Asian hemisphere and more particularly in India as being a cost effective, economic, mature and well proven form of clean, environmentally friendly and green energy production - a source of energy much needed in India", said Sarvesh Kumar, Chairman of the IWTMA". "Japan plans to attain the wind energy target of 3,000 megawatts by the year 2010 after the Kyoto Protocol. We have installed about 936 MW to date which is 20 times in comparison to 5 years ago and one third of the national target", said Hikaru Matsumiya, representative of the Japanese Wind Energy and Japanese Wind Energy Associations.

GWEC, the global forum for the wind energy sector, calls for stronger national and international policies to support the expansion of wind energy as part of the range of policy options required to tackle climate change. According to the report Wind Force 12 (3), boosting investment in wind energy to a level where it would provide 12% of world electricity generation by 2020 would result in annual reductions of 1,813 million tons of CO2 in 2020 from 1,245,000MW of wind energy installed.