Total capacity is now 194.4GW, compared to 158.7GW installed at the end of 2009 – a 22.5% increase.
For the first time, more than half of the new wind power was added outside Europe and North America. This was mainly driven by China, which installed 16.5GW.
, moving ahead of the US in installed capacity.
Among the other emerging market leaders, India added 2.1GW, Brazil 326MW, Mexico 316MW and North African countries including Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia 213MW.
Overall the wind market was down for the first time in 20 years, shrinking by 7% from 38.6GW in 2009.
This was due to a slowdown in the US and Europe, which GWEC attributes to the financial crisis, low levels of wind turbine orders, a depressed OECD electricity demand and policy uncertainty in the US.
US installations dropped from 10GW in 2009 to just over 5GW in 2010. In Europe new capacity was down 7.5% from 10.7GW to 9.9GW.
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