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Title:
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Trends in the development and implementation of wind energy technology ; this report has been presented at the conference "Windpower 99", Burlington(VT), USA, June 20-23, 1999
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Author(s):
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Published by:
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Publication date:
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ECN
Solar Energy
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1-7-1999
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ECN report number:
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Document type:
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ECN-RX--99-021
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Other
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Number of pages:
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Full text:
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9
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Download PDF
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Abstract:
The installed power over the world is distributed very unevenly: onlyfive countries (USA, Denmark, Germany, India and Spain) make up 80 % of the
total installed capacity. Also the annual growth of the capacity is unevenly
distributed: in one year (1998) Germany installed more than twice the
cumulative present wind capacity of the Netherlands, although the exploitable
wind resources in both countries are of the same order of magnitude. Trying
to identify the success factors could provide us with the basis for
strategies to multiply the developments in less successful regions.
Considering the fact that the growth of wind capacity is concentrated in a
limited number of countries this could create confidence in a continuous
growth taking place in many more countries. In twenty years time the world
wide annual installation rate of wind turbines has increased from a few
megawatts to over 2,000 MW. Commercial machines have grown in size from 10 kW
(5 meter rotor diameter) to almost 2,000 kW (70 meter diameter). At present
the installed wind capacity in the world is about 10,400 MW. In the eighties
the generation cost of wind electricity were reduced by a factor 10 (in 10
years time). Since the early nineties cost reduction was slower, but
continuous. There is still a perspective for further cost reduction of 25 to
35 % compared to the present level. 4 refs.
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