The Walney offshore wind farm, currently the largest wind farm in the world, has opened. The wind farm is located 14 km off the coast of Walney island in northwest England. At 367 MW it is the largest offshore wind power project in the world at the moment. The wind farm supplies enough electricity to power 320,000 households.
The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) reported that US wind power installations grew with 31% in 2011, compared to the previous year. A total of 3.4 GW of wind power capacity was installed in the last quarter of 2011, bringing 2011’s total to 6.81 GW. For this year, more than 8.3 GW of capacity is under construction across the United States.
While the wind, just like the sun, is a free resource, you can’t really measure how much you use or have. Instead, you have to measure the wind as it is being used. With the right information, you can tune the wind turbines to run more efficiently.
If you sum up all the offshore wind energy projects currently underway plus the current offshore parks and the approved plans to build offshore wind power projects, it can power over 130 million European homes with electricity. This amount, 141 GW, is 35 times more than the current offshore wind power capacity, which is 4 GW at the moment. If we would look at the 141 GW of possible offshore wind power output, it would be sufficient to supply 13,1% of Europe’s electricity demand.
The Brazilian government recently launched an energy expansion plan to boost installed wind power generation capacity to 11.5 GW by 2020. Currently wind energy generates 1.5 GW of power for Brazil. This major increase in capacity brings huge investment opportunities for developers and entrepreneurs.
Can small actions lead to great changes?
See the impact of renewable energy systems on poverty reduction.
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