Spain Proves Wind Power Works
by Justin Thomas, Virginia on 08.30.05
Last year Spain reached a record level of wind power installations. Many people now cite Spain's use of wind power as proof that wind is a viable energy source. Corin Millais, CEO of the European Wind Energy Association says: "To dismiss wind energy as an expensive, niche green luxury, as many do, is to ignore what has happened in Spain, the world's number one wind market". Last year there was an additional 2,065 MW installed, a 33 percent increase on 2003, taking the total to 8,263 MW. Germany is still the leader overall, with about 16,000 MW of wind power installed. :: Renewable Energy Access
That's nice to see. We're putting up more in Washington state as well, but not of that size.
Spain and Germany may have a lot of wind power, but nothing close to Denmark in terms of generation per capita. Denmark has 540Watts/person, Germany is next closest with 140Watts/person and Spain is third with 120Watts/person. More info on this available here.
please send me some info because i am doing a science project on how wind can make power and how useful it really can be.thank you
Spain is indeed Europe's big motor of wind energy, and will be for the next 5 years while countries like the UK, Sweden and Germany try and get an offshore wind market going.
Not only domestically, but internationally Spain is projecting its wind experience abroad with the likes of Iberdrola, Acciona Energia, Endesa, and CESA building international portfolios of wind farms. Unfortunately, the Spanish wind model has not been quite as exportable. Spain's 'virtuous wind circle' of jobs, tax revenues, emissions savings, and power supply is a model more countries should consider adopting. (I'm not Spanish by the way).