The latest issue of Wind Power Monthly (one of the bigger wind trade magazines) is pretty optimistic about the state of the wind industry after the renewal of the PTC in the U.S. It seems that the industry is widely predicting a banner year for us in 2005.

Development has been really slow in 2004 (only 19 MW so far according the Wind Power Monthly's Windicator). Happily, that's not the case in the rest of the world this year. Spain is having a banner year and has again surpassed the U.S. to become second in the world in total installations with 7,049 MW (behind Germany, which is way in the lead with 15,600 MW). The U.S. now has 6,371 MW. It seems there has also been significant growth in Australia, Canada, New Zealan, and Portugal. It's good to see that the world wind industry doesn't live and die with the PTC the way it frustratingly does in the U.S.

The January issue of Wind Power Monthly has some preliminary totals on how many new wind turbines were installed around the world in 2004.

As predicted, the pace picked up in the U.S. in the fourth quarter after the PTC was renewed, with approximately 450 MW for the year. That's better than the 19 MW we had in September, but it's still way off from the near record of 2003 (almost 1,700 MW). The top states were Iowa, Texas and New Mexico.

Outside the U.S., Spain and Germany were the stars of 2004, installing about 1800 MW each.