Highlights of the World Wind Energy Report 2008: 

· Worldwide capacity reaches 121’188 MW, out of which 27’261 MW were added in 2008. 
· Wind energy continued its growth in 2008 at an increased rate of 29 %.
· All wind turbines installed by the end of 2008 worldwide are generating 260 TWh per annum, equalling more than 1,5 % of the global electricity consumption.
· The wind sector became a global job generator and has created 440’000 jobs worldwide.
· The wind sector represented in 2008 a turnover of 40 billion €.
· For the first time in more than a decade, the USA took over the number one position from Germany in terms of total installations.
· China continues its role as the most dynamic wind market in the year 2008, more than doubling the installations for the third time in a row, with today more than 12 GW of wind turbines installed.
· North America and Asia catch up in terms of new installations with Europe which shows stagnation.
· Based on accelerated development and further improved policies, a global capacity of more than 1’500’000 MW is possible by the year 2020. 

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General situation

Wind energy has continued the worldwide success story as the most dynamically growing energy source again in the year 2008. Since 2005, global wind installations more than doubled. They reached 121’188 MW, after 59’024 MW in 2005, 74’151 MW in 2006, and 93’927 MW in 2007. The turnover of the wind sector worldwide reached 40 billion € in the year 2008.

The market for new wind turbines showed a 42 % increase and reached an overall size of 27’261 MW, after 19’776 MW in 2007 and 15’127 MW in the year 2006. Ten years ago, the market for new wind turbines had a size of 2’187 MW, less than one tenth of the size in 2008. In comparison, no new nuclear reactor started operation in 2008, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Leading wind markets 2008

The USA and China took the lead, USA taking over the global number one position from Germany and China getting ahead of India for the first time, taking the lead in Asia. The USA and China accounted for 50,8 % of the wind turbine sales in 2008 and the eight leading markets represented almost 80 % of the market for new wind turbines – one year ago, still only five markets represented 80 % of the global sales. The pioneer country Denmark fell back to rank 9 in terms of total capacity, whilst until four years ago it held the number 4 position during several years. However, with a wind power share of around 20 % of the electricity supply, Denmark is still a leading wind energy country worldwide.

Diversification continues

This development goes hand in hand with a general diversification process which can be watched with today 16 markets having installations of more than 1’000 MW, compared with 13 countries one year ago. 32 countries have more than 100 MW installed, compared with 24 countries three years ago.

 Altogether 76 countries are today using wind energy on a commercial basis. Newcomers on the list are two Asian countries, Pakistan and Mongolia, which both for the first time installed larger grid-connected wind turbines.