Wind Power Continues Rapid Rise : Worldwatch

Global wind power capacity reached 94100 megawatts by the end of 2007 up 27 percent from the previous year and then topped 100000 megawatts by April 2008. The roughly 20000 megawatts installed in 2007 was 31 percent above the 2006 record for capacity additions. New wind installa�tions were second only to natural gas in the United States as an additional source of power capacity and were the leading source of new capacity in the European Union (EU).The United States led the world in new installations for the third year in a row with a record-shattering 5244 megawatts of wind capacity added increasing cumulative installed capacity by 45 percent.Wind power represented 30 percent of new U.S. capacity additions last year compared with 1 percent of the total just five years earlier.