World Wind Growth Hits New Record Despite Obstacles

It seems that Bob Dylan was right; if not the answer, then at least one answer to the global warming conundrum is blowing in the wind. Wind power is booming. According to the just-released Global Wind Report: Annual Market Update from the Global Wind Energy Council, global wind power growth hit a new all-time in 2014. New installations around the globe, of 50GW, brings the WW total to 370 GW. That’s roughly 16 times the capacity of the massive hydro plant in Niagara Falls.

As for who to thank for this, China was the world leader, putting up 23 GW of new capacity. They were followed by Germany, a distant second at 5.2 GW, followed by the US at 4.85, Brazil at 2.5 GW, followed by the Canada and the UK at 1.87 GW and 1.74 GW respectively. Sweden and France both squeaked past the 1 GW mark, and perhaps surprisingly, Africa came close at 0.933 GW.

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Image credit: reynermedia: Flickr Creative Commons

RP Siegel, author and inventor, shines a powerful light on numerous environmental and technological topics. He has been published in business and technical journals and has written three books. His third, co-authored with Roger Saillant, is Vapor Trails, an eco-thriller that is being adapted for the big screen. RP is a professional engineer – and a prolific inventor, with 50 patents, numerous awards, and several commercial products. He is president of Rain Mountain LLC and is an active environmental advocate in his hometown of Rochester, N.Y. In addition to Justmeans, he writes for Triple Pundit, ThomasNet News, and Energy Viewpoints, occasionally contributing to Mechanical Engineering, Strategy + Business, and Huffington Post.