Wind power is a renewable energy that seemed to have benefited most from the rising oil prices. Additions to capacity have shot up by 27,056 mw in 2008, as compared to just 19,865 mw in 2007. The fortunes of the sector has remained buoyant during the decade with the new capacity been added steadily going up from 6,500 mw in 2001 to 15,245 mw in 2006.

Energy-starved Bric countries like China and India remain at the forefront of the spectacular turnaround in the fortunes of wind energy. While China added 6,300 mw of wind energy capacity in 2008, India boosted its capacity by 1800 mw making them the 2nd and 3rd largest investors in this buoyant segment. However, Brazil fared poorly adding just 94 mw and Russia fared nowhere in the picture till now.

The sizable additions to wind capacity in China in 2008 helped it nudge down India in global rankings. The large additions to capacities in 2008 pushed up China?s ranking in the total wind sector from the 5th to the 4th position with the capacity going up to 12,210 mw. India?s ranking slipped a rung from the 5th to the fourth position during the period with its total capacity being only 9,645 mw. Brazil remained a laggard with a wind energy generation capacity of only 341 mw.

A reshuffle in the global ranking of the wind energy producers in 2008 was the emergence of the US as a leader by pushing down Germany to the second position. The US, which added as much as 8,358 mw of wind capacity in 2008, increased its total capacity in the sector to 25,170 mw. While Germany, which had the highest capacity in 2007, could only add 1,665 mw in 2008 and push up it total wind energy generation capacity to 23,903.

However, despite the large gains made by the US and countries like China and India, Europe continues to remain the bastion of the wind energy sector. The extensive use of wind energy across the nations in Europe has pushed up the additions to capacity in the region to the same levels as in North America and Asia.

Numbers for 2008 show that total additions to wind energy capacity in Europe was 8,877 mw, which is slightly more than the 8,589 mw added in Asia and a little less than the 8,8881 mw added in North America during the period. The European countries which had the largest capacity addition in 2008 include Germany (1,665 mw), Spain (1,609 mw), Italy (1,010 mw), France (950 mw), United Kingdom (836 mw) and Portugal (712 mw). These countries ranking to the global wind energy capacity addition in 2008 ranged between the 4th and the 9th positions.

These extensive additions to wind capacity in 2008 have helped it retain its ranking as the region with the highest share of wind generation capacity. With about 65,946 mw of wind energy capacity, Europe accounted for 54.6% of the global capacity. Second in the ranking was North America with capacities of 27,539 mw, which accounted for 22.8% of the global stock. Asia, which has made gigantic gains ranked third with 24,368 mw of capacity and a global share of 19.9%.

Though it will take some time for North America and Asia to catch up with Europe in the wind energy sector, the day is not too far considering the fact that Europe?s share has been dwindling much faster than normal. Most recent numbers for 2007 and 2008 show that while Europe?s global share shrunk from 60.9% to 50.6% during the period, that of Asia went up from 16.8% to 20.2%, while North American share rose from 19.9% to 22.8%.

However, the gains made by the three Bric countries in 2008 were significantly large with its global share in total wind energy capacity moving up from 14.9% to 18.4%. However, the extent of gains was very unequal. China, whose share of the global wind capacity moved up from 6.3% to 10.1% between 2007 and 2008, was the largest gainer. In contrast, the global share of India slid marginally from 8.4% to 8% during the period. The scenario in Brazil was the least buoyant with its share of the global wind energy generation capacity remaining stagnant at a marginal 0.3%.

p.raghavan@expressindia.com