Texas still rules US wind energy market

The state of Texas no longer an oil-loving state, it has in fact become one of nation's clean energy leaders, thanks to a rapid wind energy development. Texas still convincingly leads the way in US wind energy market by adding more wind energy capacity in 2012 than any other US state.

The official US Department of Energy report says that Texas added 1826 MW of new wind energy capacity in 2012. This growth in wind energy capacity played major role in US narrowly overtaking China and becoming the global leader in installed wind energy capacity in 2012.

At the end of 2012 Texas had a total of 12.214 MW of installed wind energy capacity. Gigantic wind turbines powered by mighty prairie winds are becoming a common sight in Texas. Wind energy today accounts for more than 8% of in state electricity generation.

The rapid wind energy development requires adequate transmission system and the Texas Competitive Renewable Energy Zone (CREZ) program includes close to 3600 miles of new transmission lines. Based on the current reports, large chunk of this program should be completed by the end of 2013. Once completed, this program will have costs of up to $9 billion and should enable a total of 18,500 MW of wind energy capacity with 66 wind energy projects included in the program.

It certainly seems like Texas is putting much of its clean energy eggs into wind energy basket. The low natural gas prices have become main competitor to wind energy within the state, though wind energy prices are also on the decline according to recent reports.

The other bonus of rapid wind energy development in Texas and the rest of the nation is that many wind turbine components are now being constructed inside the US borders, meaning that manufacturing can provide well paid jobs for many of US citizens.

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Global wind power growth slower than expected

There are 100 countries from all over the globe that currently harness wind energy and the global wind capacity is now over 282GW with 44.6GW added in 2012 alone, the record addition in a single year - according to a latest report by the World Wind Energy Association (WWEA).

However, this new record capacity still represented the lowest growth record in more than a decade, representing an annual growth of relatively modest 19.2%. 

This percentage would be even smaller without the spike that occured in second half of the year as US developers rushed to avoid the anticipated expiration of the wind energy production tax credit.

The majority of the new wind energy capacity in 2012 was added in China and United States, with around 13 GW in each of these two countries. These two countries are still the world's largest wind energy producers.

The fast developing Indian wind energy market added more than 2.5 GW of new wind energy capacity in 2012, while in Europe Germany and Spain still lead the way as the two largest wind energy markets in EU.

The Asian wind energy market accounted for most of new installastions in 2012 with 36.3 %, edging North America (31.3 %) and Europe (27.5 %).

The future wind energy outlook remains positive with  WWEA expecting 500 GW mark in global wind energy capacity to be reached by the end of 2016.

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Brazil: Wind energy market rapidly growing

Brazil is large country with plenty of renewable energy resources at its disposal. This wealth of clean energy resources should give Brazil good position in global clean energy race. Up until recently the Brazilian renewable energy market was focused almost entirely on hydropower but things have certainly changed in the last few years with wind power industry now being the fastest growing renewable energy industry in the country.

This sudden popularity of wind shouldn't come as surprise, especially when you combine Brazilian government’s commitment to get more energy from renewable sources with the abundance of wind power resources available to Brazil.

The recent studies have calculated that Brazil's onshore and offshore wind power resources are set to be around 350 GW. Brazilian wind power industry is developing very fast. In the period from 2008-2010 Brazil has almost tripled its wind power capacity, from 341 MW in 2008 to 931 MW at the end of 2010. Energy analysts expect that this trend will continue in years to come, and that Brazil will be a leading Latin America's wind power market in the next decade or so. In fact, in 2011 and 2012 Brazil accounted for 50% of all wind power installations in central and South America. It is expected that Brazil will reach 2 GW of installed wind power capacity by the end of 2012.

This number is expected to climb to 15 GW by 2020. Brazil has started attracting many famous wind energy companies and country is also looking to add several wind manufacturing facilities. Despite the fact that Brazilian wind energy market is still in the very early phase of its development the future of wind power industry in Brazil looks to be rosy because investors believe in the large future growth of wind power market.

The strong development of wind power industry in Brazil will not only help reduce greenhouse gas emissions responsible for climate change but will also boost Brazilian economy by creating new jobs.

The Brazilian government has set a goal of achieving 10 gigawatts of wind energy capacity by 2020. The way things are currently going there would be a very little surprise if Brazil were to go significantly beyond this goal by 2020.

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