English - Nooteboom Giants on the Road Magazine English - Nr. 6 - 2019 | Page 35

THEME Wind energy is now used worldwide. Interesting emerging markets are Russia, Argentina, Saudi-Arabia and Vietnam. And for the longer term the Philippines, Indonesia, Nigeria and Iran are mentioned as interesting growth markets. In Europe the growth in the coming five years will be much lower than the worldwide figures. Lengthy procedures and stringent regulations restrict the growth in Europe. Everyone wants to back the switch to clean energy, but no one likes to see a windmill in their back yard. Via political decisions about the levels of subsidies, the government decides the pace at which we can switch to wind energy. The cost of wind energy will in the coming years become lower than electricity generated by fossil fuels. Up to 2022 the growth in Europe will be limited to about 7% per annum. After that the outlook is more favourable and from 2030 onwards at least 50% of all windmills will have to be replaced by new, more efficient ones. If another suitable energy carrier can be found – for instance hydrogen – the windmills will after 2050 disappear again from the densely-populated regions in Western Europe. TOP 10 NEW INSTALLED CAPACITY JAN-DEC 2017 France South Africa Rest of the world Turkey Finland Italy Brazil PR China In 2017 wind turbines were installed worldwide with a total capacity of 52,492 MW. This increased the overall capacity to 539,123 MW, a growth of 11%. Of that capacity only 3% are in the sea, but the market for offshore windmills is growing rapidly, especially due to the construction of large wind parks in the North Sea. The most striking development in 2017 is the large reduction in price per kWh. Major tenders for new wind farms in Morocco, Mexico and Canada were offered for a price of approx. US $ 0.03 per kWh. And off the Zeeland coast a wind park will be constructed that can operate without relying on any subsidy. 2017 was a record year in terms of installed capacity in Europe, with Germany and England as frontrunners. The top five worldwide in 2017: China, the USA, Germany, India and Spain. Canada Brazil France JAN-DEC 2017 India United Kingdom Spain United Kingdom India USA Germany THE FIGURES TOP 1 Country MW % Share Country PR China 19,660 37 PR China USA 7,017 13 USA Germany 6,581 12 Germany United Kingdom 4,270 8 India India 4,148 8 Spain Brazil 2,022 4 United King France 1,694 3 France Turkey 766 1 Brazil South Africa 618 1 Canada Italy Finland 535 1 5,182 10 Rest of the w Total TOP 10 47,310 90 Total TO P1 World Total 52,492 100 World Tota Rest of the world Source: GWEC 35