According to the International Energy Outlook 2006 the generation of electricity will double over the next 25 years. Against this background experts expect that the percentage of electricity generated from renewable sources of energy will increase by 57 percent, if costs continue falling and the supply quality remains satisfying. Today there is already an entire industry in which global turnover doubled from 30 to 60 billion Euros in just 7 years. This market is even expected to grow to 400 billion Euros by the year 2020.
Germany is world leader in wind power generation, solar and bio energy. Germany’s leading role in particular with regard to the wind power and photovoltaic installations which is a process in which electricity is generated directly from sunlight is also a consequence of the intensive and successful standardization processes in the German industry. There are about 130 German experts who work on the respective standards.
China, however, which already today is the world leader in terms of solar thermal systems could soon conquer the world’s leading position in the field of wind power which is currently held by Germany. This strong position of China is already leading to price drops for wind power installations which become bigger and bigger and are more and more often built offshore.
The most recent International Energy Outlook 2007 in English by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) is available for free-of-charge download. 