Appraisal of the world wind turbine market

There are two distinct sections into which the demand for new generation can be divided: those areas which need new capacity for economic growth and those which are under pressure to provide cleaner forms of electricity. The traditional wind energy markets of the USA and Northern Europe fall into the latter category while the new markets - South America, China and India - are in the former. Once they have been initiated wind energy markets have, historically, developed very fast. It is therefore quite possible that, in five to ten years' time, there will be important markets which have not yet been identified. A further category of market could, therefore, have been included in the estimate to cover this group. The lack of precision with which such a market can be estimated means that the estimates would be little more than guesses; no such estimates have therefore been included. The implication of this omission is that the long term market is likely to have been underestimated. (author)