Here's some promising news: The Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) announced a substantial increase over 2006 in the amount of wind power generated across 70 countries of the world. The additional 15,197 megawatt capacity added in 2006 makes for a total global wind energy capacity of 74,223 megawatts. What does that mean? Well, according to enXco, an American wind developer, one megawatt of wind produces about the amount of electricity that 300 averages North American homes consume in one year. This advancement shows that government and businesses are finally stepping up to combat global warming-- the amount of money invested in wind equipment in 2006 was roughly $23 billion. Germany leads the world in wind energy, with a capacity of 20,621 megawatts, followed by Spain and the U.S., which each have around 11,000-12,000 megawatts, followed by India and Denmark.
Europe definitely has the most widespread wind technology, but the U.S. has been the winner for the past 2 years with 2,454 megawatts installed in 2006, at a price tag around $4 billion. This makes wind the biggest energy producer, besides natural gas, in the U.S. for both 2005 and 2006. Outside of the states, Canda and France both had a big year for wind energy, each investing in at least twice as much wind technology than they already had. Altogether, there are now 13 countries whose wind capacity tops 1,000 megawatts. In terms of other continental contributions, Asia increased wind by 3,769 megawatts, bringing them to a total around 10,600 megawatts. Egypt, Morocco, and Iran were the main spots for increase in Africa and the Middle East, with a 172 megawatt increase to 441 megawatts total. This small growth isn't unsurprising for these countries, but Austrailia showed disappointing numbers, compared to earlier years. They increased capacity by 109 megawatts, for a total of 817 megawatts.
It's nice to see that the U.S. is taking the initiative here, as we are obviously one of the primary producers of CO2 emissions. Hopefully the other world leaders in greenhouse gas emissions will strive to ameliorate the damage they've caused-- Indonesia? China?
Europe definitely has the most widespread wind technology, but the U.S. has been the winner for the past 2 years with 2,454 megawatts installed in 2006, at a price tag around $4 billion. This makes wind the biggest energy producer, besides natural gas, in the U.S. for both 2005 and 2006. Outside of the states, Canda and France both had a big year for wind energy, each investing in at least twice as much wind technology than they already had. Altogether, there are now 13 countries whose wind capacity tops 1,000 megawatts. In terms of other continental contributions, Asia increased wind by 3,769 megawatts, bringing them to a total around 10,600 megawatts. Egypt, Morocco, and Iran were the main spots for increase in Africa and the Middle East, with a 172 megawatt increase to 441 megawatts total. This small growth isn't unsurprising for these countries, but Austrailia showed disappointing numbers, compared to earlier years. They increased capacity by 109 megawatts, for a total of 817 megawatts.
It's nice to see that the U.S. is taking the initiative here, as we are obviously one of the primary producers of CO2 emissions. Hopefully the other world leaders in greenhouse gas emissions will strive to ameliorate the damage they've caused-- Indonesia? China?
On another note, the U.S. has spent around $505 billion of our tax dollars on the war in Iraq. Not that we can get any of that money back now, but even investing just a fraction of that amount in wind energy would give us much better results in the long run. Maybe it's time we declared war on greenhouse gas emissions... would that mean a slice of the defense departments budget?
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