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WIND POWER
WIND POWER MARKETS
Wind power experienced another record year in 2015, with more
than 63 GW added – a 22% increase over the 2014 market – for a
global total of around 433 GW. 1 (p See Figure 23.) More than half
of the world’s wind power capacity has been added over the past
five years. 2 By the end of 2015, more than 80 countries had seen
commercial wind activity, while 26 countries – representing every
region – had more than 1 GW in operation. 3 Wind was the leading
source of new power generating capacity in Europe and the
United States and placed second in China, and, by one estimate,
wind supplied more new power generation worldwide than any
other technology in 2015. 4
China led for new installations, followed distantly by the United
States, Germany, Brazil and India. 5 Others in the top 10 were
Canada, Poland, France, the United Kingdom and Turkey. 6 (p See
Figure 24 and Reference Table R9.) Non-OECD countries again
were responsible for the majority of installations; most of the new
capacity was added in China, which alone accounted for nearly
half of global additions, but new markets are opening across
Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. 7 Guatemala,
Jordan and Serbia all installed their first large-scale wind plants,
and Samoa added its first project. 8 At the end of 2015, the leading
countries for total wind power capacity per inhabitant were
Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Ireland and Spain. 9
Growth in some of the largest markets was driven by uncertainty
about future policy changes; however, wind deployment also
was driven by wind power's cost-competitiveness and by
environmental and other factors. 10 Wind has become the leastcost
option for new power generating capacity in an increasing
number of markets. 11
Asia was the largest market for the eighth consecutive year,
accounting for 53% of added capacity, followed by the European
Union (20.1%) and North America (16%). 12 All regions but Africa
saw market growth relative to 2014. 13
China added a staggering 30.8 GW of new capacity in 2015, for
a total exceeding 145 GW – more wind capacity than the entire
EU. 14 Nearly 33 GW was integrated into the national grid and
started receiving the FIT premium, with approximately 129 GW
considered officially grid-connected by year’s end. 15 Significant
growth was expected in anticipation of reduced FIT levels (as of 1
January 2016), but the market surpassed expectations, particularly
in light of China’s economic slowdown. 16 The market also was
driven by a national government push to improve energy security
and, in particular, to reduce coal consumption due to growing
concerns about climate change and air pollution. 17
At year’s end, Inner Mongolia had 18.7% of China’s cumulative
capacity, followed by Xinjiang (12.5%), Gansu (9.7%) and Hebei
(7.9%) provinces. 18 Difficulties continued in transmitting China’s
wind power from turbines to population centres and, combined
with slow growth in electricity demand (0.6%), led to significant
grid curtailment. 19 Curtailment rose in 2015 to an average 15%,
up from 8% in 2014, with 33.9 TWh of potential generation kept
from the grid. 20 In addition, many unused turbines sat awaiting
completion of long-distance transmission capacity. In the
meantime, some companies were building wind farms at sites in
the country’s east and south, with lower wind speeds but closer
to demand and with better grid infrastructure. 21 Wind energy
generated 186.3 TWh in China during 2015, accounting for 3.3% of
total electricity generation in the country (up from 2.8% in 2014). 22
India installed about 2.6 GW, passing Spain to rank fourth globally
for total wind power capacity, with nearly 25.1 GW by year’s end. 23
India added less capacity than expected, despite wind’s costcompetitiveness
in much of the country and strong national and
state-level policy support, due largely to a shortage of available
transmission capacity. 24 Other Asian countries that added
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