Current context

Wind power was first developed in Denmark in the 1980s, then in the USA, Germany and India in the 1990s. Europe and, to a lesser extent, the United States dominated the wind power industry for a long time, but China is now the country with the largest wind turbine manufacturers and the highest installed wind power capacity, with 145 GW at the end of 2015.

In Europe, wind power provides 10% of electricity consumption.

One striking phenomenon is the sharp increase in the number of countries with policies in place to develop wind power. Whereas in 2000, there were still only 5 countries with more than 500 MW of wind power, there were 35 in 2014.

This very strong growth has been accompanied by a rapid increase in the diameter of wind turbine rotors, from an average of 30 m (for 0.3 MW) in the early 1990s, to 80 m (for...