Last year saw a record in new worldwide wind power installations. According to a new report from FTI Consulting, Global Wind Market Update 2014, 51.5 GW of new installations were added in 2014.Â
According to FTI,  Danish turbine producer “Vestas was quick to capitalise on this growth by claiming the crown as the leading turbine OEM supplier for the second year in a row, with a commanding lead over Siemens, which placed second.”
China’s Goldwind was the third largest wind turbine manufacturer, followed by GE and Enercon.
FTI’s figures confirm by preliminary figures published by the World Wind Energy Assocation (WWEA) in February. WWEA reported that more than 50 Gigawatt (GW) of capacity was added, 40% more than in 2013 and breaking the 2012 record of 44.6 GW. Overall 370 GW of wind power has been installed worldwide now.
The top-12 countries installed 44.8 GW, with China far ahead of the rest with 23.3 GW. Germany came in second with 5.8 GW, the US third with 4.8 GW. China now has 115 GW of wind power installed.
The “newcomer of the year”, says WWEA, is Brazil, which added 2.8 GW. Denmark set a new world record by reaching a wind power share of 39% in its domestic power supply, notes WWEA. Globally wind power now supplies “close to 5%” of electricity supply, with half a dozen countries, including Spain, the UK and Germany, already getting over 10% of their electricity from wind.
The Global Wind Energy Council has published similar figures, saying that 51.4 GW was added in 2014, bringing the total to 369.5 GW. EurObserv’ER has reported 52.1 GW of new capacity.