Wind turbine market grew by 23 percent in 2006

The wind turbine market which is very much influenced by small and medium-sized entities (SMEs) is booming. The annual statistics presented yesterday by the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) reveal an enourmous growth rate for the European wind turbine market in 2006. In the course of 2006 wind turbines with a capacitance of 7588 megawatt to the value of about 9 billion Euros wer installed which is a 23% increase as compared with the year 2005.

In total, overall EU wind energy capacitance increased by 19% and currently amounts to 48.000 megawatts. Thus, on average about 100 TWh of electric energy or 3.3% of the entire EU electrity demand is generated annually. Seven years in a row wind energy has ranked second in terms of new capacitance (approx. 8500 MW in 2006) for electricity generation topped only by natural gas.

Germany and Spain continue to attract the lion share of investment. In 2006 these two countries accounted for 50% of the EU´s wind turbine market. However, the new figures confirm a trend reversal. Whereas in 2002 only 680 MW of European wind energy capacitance was installed outside Germany, Spain and Denmark, this figure rose to 3755 MW in 2006.

New wind energy installations in the EU-10 member states tripled from 60 MW in 2005 to 183 MW in 2006. Most of these new installations took place in Poland, Lithuania and Hungary. The figure for Bulgaria was 22 MW and 1.3 MW for Rumania. In the meantime eight EU member states dispose of a wind energy capacitance of more than 1000 MW. GERMAN

Matomo