The institute's analysis of wind energy trends since 1980 revealed that Germany continues to lead Europe's efforts to step up its share of wind energy. However, fewer new installations were built last year than in 2007, while compared to record year 2002, the drop was nearly 50%, it said.
This contrasts with the 50% surge in new capacity in the US, as demonstrated by the new figures. The United States now generates more electricity from wind than any other country in the world, surpassing previous leader Germany, according to Worldwatch.
Nevertheless, taking into account population size, the figures show that despite its bigger capacity, wind energy only produces a little over 1% of US electricity demand, according to the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC). Germany, on the other hand, satisfies 7.5% of its electricity consumption with wind energy.
GWEC expects China to become the world's leading market for new installations this year, as the recession hits finance for wind projects in the US.
"Of course the financial crisis is affecting the wind energy industry, just like any other sector. At the same time, the outlook for wind energy is very healthy," said Arthouros Zervos, GWEC's chairman.
Despite the economic downturn, Worldwatch judged that 2008 was a good year for wind energy as global wind capacity grew by almost 29%, faster than the annual average over the past decade. As a result, more than 1.5% of the world's electricity now comes from wind, it stated.
For the first time, wind power surpassed natural gas by a wide margin as the leading source of new electricity in Europe, Worldwatch said. It argued that the region is now capable of generating around 4.2% of its electricity from wind in an average wind year.
"The figures show that wind energy is the undisputed number one choice in Europe's efforts to move towards clean, indigenous renewable power," said Christian Kjaer, chief executive of the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA).
Cooperation to reach renewables target
In the meantime, European electricity industry body Eurelectric called on member states to use inter-country cooperation mechanisms contained in the new Renewables Directive, which became law last month (EurActiv 07/04/09), to meet their renewables goals.
Speaking at the opening session of the association's annual renewable energy conference, Eurelectric Chairman David Porter said meeting the EU target of producing 20% of the bloc's energy from renewable sources by 2020 would be "extremely challenging" and would "require many things to go right".
Electricity production from renewables would have to rise from the current 16% to 34% in 2020 to meet the overall energy target. The European Commission expects wind energy to be the biggest contributor to bridging the gap, contributing at least 12% of renewable electricity in 2020 (EurActiv 21/01/09).
Eurelectric argued, however, that some member states would find it impossible to increase their domestic production enough to meet their binding national targets. It advocates making maximum use of the cross-border trading mechanisms to help the EU meet its targets.
The optional mechanisms allow member states to agree on the extent to which one member state's support for energy production in another should count towards their national target.
Making these trading arrangements fully flexible would bring down the cost of implementing the directive by as much as €17 billion per year by 2020, Eurelectric argued.
