Germany falls behind in wind turbine installations

Germany was replaced by the United States as the world’s No.1 market for newly installed wind turbines last year due to falling subsidies, the German wind energy federation BWE said on Tuesday.

While new installation of wind turbines worldwide rose about 31 percent overall to 20,076 megawatt (MW), new installations in Germany slumped 25 percent to 1,667 MW last year, the association said in a statement.
Germany, which is still the world’s largest wind market overall, fell behind and now ranks on 5th position, making room at the top for the United States, followed by Spain, China and India, BWE said.

Industry subsidies as defined in the current German renewable energy law were insufficient to meet the cost situation, said Hermann Albers, president of the BWE.

Rising prices for raw materials such as steel, copper as well as higher energy costs offset savings gained through rising efficiency, he added.

The BWE cautioned that expansion of Germany’s wind industry could stall completely by 2010 if the government would not adapt a more favourable stand in the new renewable energy law, which is currently under revision.

Reuters