China leads the windy world

CHINA overtook America as the world leader in wind power in 2010, according to a new annual report by the Global Wind Energy Council. The chart below shows the five countries that make the greatest use of wind energy. Over the past decade, China's installed wind capacity has grown exponentially, from just 0.3GW in 2000 to 42.3GW last year, and now accounts for 22% of the world's total wind power capacity. In 2010 it installed more turbines than America. The picture for the industry as a whole is less good, though. 2010 was the first year in which less capacity was installed than in the previous year.