The annual report, which examines developments within the wind energy sector, also reveals Vestas has managed to cling onto its position as the world's number one manufacturer, backing up similar analysis from earlier in the year.
This year Vestas's market share has fallen from 19.8% in 2008 to 12.5% and second placed GE has fallen from 18.6% to 12.4% At the same time three Chinese manufacturers Sinovel, Goldwind and Dongfang all feature in the top 10.
Overall the report revealed 38.1GW of wind energy capacity was installed in 2009, however this includes projects still waiting to be connected to the grid. Total installed capacity is 166GW. This year wind will account for 1.6% of the world's electricity.
BTM also predicts the wind energy sector will grow by $45billion to $124billion between 2010 and 2014.
Other highlights include:
- Europe has lost its previous position as number one continent for newly installed wind power with only 28.2%. Three years ago this figure was 51%.
- The Americas had a strong year accounting for 30% of all new installations, second only to South & East Asia, which accounted for 41%.
- For the second year running the UK installed the greatest offshore capacity while overall 689MW was supplied for projects globally. The value of the offshore market in 2009 was €51billion.
- There was an increased demand for wind turbines with a direct drive design. This accounted for 14% of the market in 2009 and was largely supplied by Goldwind and Enercon.
For more see the upcoming May edition of Windpower Monthly
