The latest Global Wind Report Annual Market Update 2012 from the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) reports that the 2012 global wind power market grew by more than 10% compared to 2011. Nearly 45 GW of new wind power capacity resulted from about €56 billion of investment. The new global total capacity at the end of 2012 was 282.5GW, equal to about a quarter of the power generation capacity of the U.S.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) Technology Roadmap, in 2013 wind power provided 2.5% of global electricity demand. In Denmark wind power provided 30 % of domestic demand. The world leaders are China with 75 GW of installed capacity, the United States with 60 GW and Germany with 31 GW. Countries belonging to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) led early wind development, from 2010 non-OECD countries installed more wind turbines.
Onshore wind power generation costs range from US$ 60 per megawatt hour (US$/MWh) to US$ 130/ MWh. Offshore wind technology costs are still higher than land-based costs.
The IEA forecasts that wind will account for 15% to 18% share of global electricity from wind power by 2050. The new target of 2 300 GW to 2 800 GW of installed wind capacity will avoid emissions of up to 4.8 gigatonnes (Gt) of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year. This will require increasing annual installed wind power capacity (including repowering) to 65 GW by 2020 and to 104 GW by 2050 and will require an annual investment of US$ 146 billion to US$ 170 billion. The IEA projection assumes that wind isntallation costs will decrease by as much as 25% for land-based and 45% for offshore by 2050.
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