Now that wind power is growing in demand and popularity, Chicago isn’t the world’s only windy city.
Illinois’ political monikers aside, this renewable energy source is steadily emerging as a global viable alternative to traditional fuel sources.
Markets worldwide harness its to address global electricity demands, and off-set the turbulent impacts of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Both renewable and sustainable, wind power is a cost-effective solution whose market size in various economies is undergoing substantial growth. This behaviour is due to countries across the world opting for renewable energy as a replacement to fossil fuel. This choice also relates to efforts made for increasing domestic power supply.
Wind power: affordable, and a breeze to use
However, it won’t directly eliminate GHG emissions. Rather, its application avoids hazardous discharges from conventional fuel sources which negatively impact the environment, and the lives within it.
Furthermore, the energy supply created by wind farms relates directly to the amount of emissions avoided from displacing standard and non-renewable resources.
Wind power also creates a significant amount of employment opportunities.
China is the largest global manufacturer of turbines and turbine-relating components. As such, it boasted 502,000 positions across the value chain by the end of 2015. By doing so, it secured its position as global leader of installed wind power capacity.
To that end, it holds more than a third of the world’s wind power capacity, significantly leading ahead of the US and Germany.
However, as efforts to mitigate GHG emissions increase, the future could see the movement of finances across participating nations.
While China is the global leader in regards to capacity, experts are looking towards South Africa to become the new and dynamic wind power market.
Although the industry practically didn’t exist as recently as 2012, auctions made during the first Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement (REIPPP) in 2013 changed South Africa’s role in the global wind power arena. Experts expect its presence to continue to grow significantly from 2016 all the way through to 2020.
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