Financial crisis is slowing growth of wind energy

At this expected growth rate and at erection costs of 1.4 million euros/MW we estimate that around 40 billion euro revenues per year will be generated by the wind power industry in the coming years.

"The costs of wind power have dropped since the 1980s by around 80% to approximately EUR 70/MWh and even managed at times to reach market levels in 2008. At this price, wind power can compete with thermal power plants and by 2015 it is expected that electricity from gas and coal will remain constantly more expensive than wind power," said Stephan Lingnau (photo), analyst at Erste Group, at a media briefing.

In the coming years, further growth is expected in the onshore segment especially in the US and China. Furthermore, the offshore segment will gradually become established and repowering, i.e., the replacement of older turbines by newer ones with higher capacity, is expected to increase capacities further.

In 2007, the investments in wind power equaled investments in solar power and agro-fuels together.

Overall, the global capacity built up has doubled in the past three years. This covers around 1.4% of the global electricity consumption of the year 2006.