After more than doubling in 2006 to 1,468 MW, Canada’s installed wind power capacity is expected to grow nearly tenfold to 14,100 MW by 2015, according to a new study by Emerging Energy Research (EER).
“In the past two years the Canadian wind power market has evolved from relative obscurity — an occasional diversion for wind turbine vendors struggling for market share in the US — to become one of the world’s largest and fastest growing wind power markets,” says EER senior analyst Joshua Magee.
This follows on the heals of other big wind numbers from other countries around the world. Energy industry meet wind power, wind power this is the energy industry. If anyone had any doubts wind energy has arrived.
With C$18 billion in wind power investment forecasted between 2007 and 2015, Canada is expected to rank among the world’s five or six largest wind power markets over the forecast period, with annual MW development over the coming decade set to average 1,400 MW, according to EER’s study Canada Wind Power Markets and Strategies 2007-2015.
Driven largely by provincial utility RFPs, Canada added 784 MW in new installed wind power capacity in 2006, more than double the country’s cumulative installed capacity of 684 MW through the end of 2005. Canada will contribute at least a quarter of North America’s yearly growth through 2015, and 5% of total annual global growth. Quebec and Ontario will account for approximately 60 percent of the total market through the forecast period, with strong growth in British Columbia expected in later years, according to EER’s study.
“Provincial utility demand for wind power in Canada since 2004 has changed the game,” says Magee. “Long-term goals for greater use of renewable energy, across nearly all of Canada’s provinces, has provided the necessary transparency for investment, with strong market fundamentals based on Canada’s growing concern about its greenhouse gas emissions and energy security policy.”