Wind Energy: Figures show the strength of the sector

The generation of electricity by harnessing the energy of the winds, or wind, was undoubtedly consolidated over the past 10 years. Through Figure 1, available in the annual WWEA - World Wind Energy Association ( www.wwindea.org ), you can see the exponential growth of total installed power in MW worldwide in the last 10 years. From 24.3 MW in 2001 to 159.2 MW in 2009, with an expected increase to 203.5 MW of this in 2010.

Figure 1 - Installed capacity in the world (MW)

Taking into consideration that the end of 2008 and full year 2009 were marked by the international financial crisis, we can conclude that this sector was not affected. This is due to several factors. A large weight is the need for renewal of the global energy matrix, which is heavily dependent on oil, and due to international pressure, has forced countries to seek non-polluting sources and which do not emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Another factor that has fostered this strong growth is the consolidation of an industry specializing in wind generation. Despite using the technology already consolidated in the traditional generation, hydroelectric and thermal energy, some adjustments must be made, because the speed of rotation of the turbine is much lower than that of traditional generation, with wind speed varying in the range 5-25 m / s, to the heights of the turbines that exist today.

Figure 2 displays the installed power in the world each year, which together with the percentage rates of growth shown in Figure 3, show why the industry has attracted attention, being seen as a solution to help the world in reducing the use fossil fuels. With a growth rate above 20% since 2001, and new technologies being studied, both the power as the height of the towers has increased. Today most manufacturers already sell turbines of 2 MW, with 80 m radius. There are already prototypes of turbines of 5 MW, with 130 m radius.

Figure 2 - Installed capacity per year (MW)

Figure 3 - Growth of installed capacity per year (%)

Another fact that must be considered is the attitude of the countries worst polluters. In 2009 the U.S. installed 10 GW of wind turbines, which represents approximately a hydroelectric plant of Itaipu, the world's largest. And the china in 2009 called 14 GW of wind energy, surpassing Germany and become the second largest installed capacity in the world. In Figure 4 one can observe the installed capacity of 10 major countries.

E in Figure 5 you can see the U.S. dominance with 22% of world power installed, followed by China and Germany with 16.3% and 16.2% respectively.

Over the last decades, the growth of wind power has exceeded the most optimistic expectations, then we will be watching to see if at the end of the world will install over 44 GW for wind generation reaching the mark of 203 GW of total power.

Figure 5 - Slice of major producers