China continues to rule the global wind energy market generating around 40% of the global demand in 2011 with 18 GW of wind turbine installations. The dominance of the Chinese is underlined from the fact that they installed 3 times more wind energy than USA which is a bigger electricity market. China also dominates in supplying wind equipment to the global market. Its companies like Sinovel, Mingyang and Goldwind are starting to win marketshare in overseas market .These companies which are trying to grow outside to escape the glut in the domestic market have won some major overseas orders.
Wind Energy is the largest renewable energy source in the globe right now (if you don’t count in hydro and nuclear energy). The total installed wind energy capacity exceeds the solar and biomass capacity by quite a margin at over 200 GW . The recent surge in wind energy installations has been from China which put up almost 40-50% of the global wind turbine installations in 2010 and 2011. Now China has surpassed every other country to become the largest wind energy country in the world with over 60 GW. While Europe earlier led by Spain, Denamark and Germany used to lead in wind capacity, they have been comprehensively overtaken by the Middle Kingdom in the last couple of years. USA comes in next but still far below its potential while the rest of the world has started to pick up now. India is the 5th largest country and has been steadily putting up around 2-3 GW of wind capacity each year.
While US Solar Installers are making Hay while the Chinese Solar Panel Companies flood the world with super cheap solar modules,Western solar manufacturers are being killed at an astounding rate.The second biggest thin film solar panel company in the US United Solar Ovonic has gone belly up.The company was fighting a losing batter as the more efficient crystalline solar panel prices went below its production cost.The company had tried to fight in a the niche of BIPV solar panel market but could not survice. After First Solar,Energy Conversion Devices seemed the mostly likely viable company in Thin Film Technology.After a few quarters of profits in 2008,the company went into the red as its flexible a-Si modules failed to cut costs as fast as others.It has been shutting factories in the US and shifting to low cost locations.
While there is massive outrage amongst some politicians against the giveaways to support renewable energy, there is very little discussions on the massive subsidies given to the fossil fuel sector. Note globally more than half a trillion dollars is given away to support fossil fuels which is already a mature competitive sector. Green Energy which is a developing industry has got compete with not only the established 100 year infrastructure of fossil fuels but also against these massive $600 billion. However propagandist’s and ignorant sections of the media protest against the support given to the cleantech industry.Here is some bad and shallow journalism on German Solar subsidies
India’s Energy Storage Market is seeing strong action from foreign MNCs looking to grab a piece of this fast growing market. India’s Electricity Situation is quite bad with huge deficits and problems across the whole supply chain starting from fuel to the end distribution. A Huge Segment of the Population has to depend on privately generated power to meet their energy needs. Storage of power becomes essential for places where power goes off for 8-10 hours a day. Using Lead Acid Batteries is the only cheap option in these cases as running a diesel genset my not be convenient for a home. UPS companies have been doing great business in the country for a long time and will continue to do so.