Asia, led by China, will overtake Europe as the world leader for wind-power generating capacity next year, according to the Global Wind Energy Council. That's three years earlier than it initially forecast.
And by the end of 2015, the region's use of wind power is also expected to exceed that of Europe by 26 per cent, the association's secretary general, Steve Sawyer, told the China Wind Power conference yesterday.
'A few years ago, we expected Asia to overtake Europe in 2015, but this was revised to 2014 a couple of years ago, 2013 last year and 2012 this year,' he said.
Asia is anticipated to have 107.6 gigawatts of installed capacity by the end of the year, against Europe's 107.3 GW and North America's 61.2 GW. The three regions will account for an estimated 96.5 per cent of global cumulative installations this year.
The expansion of renewable power, such as wind and solar, is highly reliant on government subsidies, since the cost of generating clean energy is higher than fossil-fuel power. However, sharp falls in equipment costs means the need for subsidies will disappear within five years, some analysts have estimated.
Prices of Chinese wind power equipment have fallen by 20 per cent in the past year, according to a report by US brokerage Sanford C. Bernstein. Its analysts said cost advantages made Chinese turbines half the price of European ones.
They estimated that after accounting for transport costs, Chinese turbines are 20 per cent cheaper than European ones, a gap expected to widen to 30 per cent next year, making Chinese turbine makers formidable competitors internationally.