By Greentech Lead Team: Asia has added 21,298 additional
MW of installed wind turbines capacity in 2011, touching total capacity of
82,398 MW.
Installed wind farm capacity continued to grow around the
world last year despite the ongoing financial uncertainty with Europe remaining
the number one regional leader.
The world total of installed wind turbines capacity
increased by 41,000 MW or 21 percent to 238,351 MW by the end of last year.
Asia is the second largest contributor to growth in the
wind turbines market.
Installed wind farm capacity in Europe, the largest
contributor, increased by 10,281 MW to 96,616 MW in 2011. In the EU, the new
total was 93,957 MW, according to the Global Wind Energy Council’s (GWEC)
annual statistics.
North America is in third place with an additional 8,077 MW last year
increasing its total capacity to 52,184 MW.
“Despite the state of the global economy, wind power continues to be the
renewable generation technology of choice. 2011 was a tough year, as will be
2012, but the long term fundamentals of the industry remain very sound,” said
Steve Sawyer, secretary general of GWEC.
For the second year in a row, the majority of new installations were outside
the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development nations, and new
markets in Latin America, Africa and Asia continued to drive market growth.
Regionally, Latin America and the Caribbean had 3,203 MW, the Pacific Region
had 2,858 MW and Africa and the Middle East had 1,093 MW.
The global wind power sector will be hard pressed to keep the industry’s growth
up to its potential without a global price on carbon and other measures to
account for the real costs to society of conventional power generation.
Meanwhile, Transparency Market Research said the global
direct drive wind turbine market is estimated to reach $24.7 billion in 2016 at
a CAGR of 15.1 percent from 2011 to 2016. The Direct Drive Wind Turbine
installation is estimated to reach at 15.6 GW by forecasted period.
Direct drive is a new technology and having a robust growth in wind turbine
market from last few years, it realize the potentially better efficiency and
reliability of a direct drive system without cost or weight penalties comparing
with correct technology. Direct-drive turbines eliminate the need for a gearbox
all together by directly connecting the rotor to the generator. This lack of
gearbox failure is particularly attractive in offshore applications since
accessing turbines offshore can be much more difficult given the more
challenging marine weather and the need to secure appropriate vessels in a
timely manner. It offers high-performance and reliability as well as easy
installation and replacement of the wind turbines.
According to the present scenario, the direct drive technology is captured
approximately 17.4 percent share in global wind turbine market for the year
2010 and it is expected to capture 24.3 percent of overall wind turbine
installation by 2016, increase at a CAGR of 15.8 percent up to forecasted
period by 2016.