Wind power

Since the first wind turbines were built at the beginning of the 90s, power generation from wind energy has seen dynamic growth thanks to state-supported programmes. With more than a third of the world's installed capacity, no other country has more wind turbines than Germany. According to figures from the German Wind Energy Association (BWE), 18,685 plants with a capacity of 20,622 megawatts were in operation at the end of 2006. They generated 30.5 billion kilowatt hours of electricity in 2006. This corresponds to a share of around five percent in Germany's total electricity consumption and provides the largest contribution to power generation from renewable energy sources (sources: AGEE-Stat, industry figures; as of April 2007).

Support
The reasons for this unprecedented boom in the last 15 years lie in the support programmes from the national and state governments which have made the use of this energy form attractive for private and agricultural purposes and for municipal facilities and in a legally fixed payment for electricity fed into the public grid as regulated in the EEG (Renewable Energy Sources Act). These support programmes have led to technical improvements and a movement towards larger turbines, with an associated reduction in the costs of both investment and electricity generation. The starting point for the launch of wind turbines onto the German market was the "100 MW of Wind" support programme initiated by the German government in 1989. This was later raised to 250 MW. The wind market received a decisive boost in 1991 with the introduction of the Electricity Grid Feed Act. As a result of the initial payment of 8.49 cents/kilowatt hour laid down in this as well as programmes supported by the national and state governments, the feed-in of wind-generated energy into the public grid became increasingly attractive. This was limited to the turbines then in the 20 to 150 kilowatt output range, initially in particularly favourable coastal locations but then increasingly extended to include inland sites. The Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) replaced the Energy Grid Feed Act in April 2000, bringing with it new planning security. As a result of the favourable support conditions laid down in the EEG and the obligation on network operators to preferentially connect turbines receiving EEG support to the public grid, the magic threshold of 10,000 megawatts of installed capacity nationwide was exceeded as early as 2002.

Domestic sector
According to the IKEE (Information Campaign for Renewable Energy), the wind energy industry has developed into an enormous economic factor, with a 5.64 billion euro turnover in Germany in 2006 and more than 73,800 people employed in the sector. Services provided by German manufacturers of wind turbines include planning, construction, equipment, systems engineering, plant supervision, finance packages and training. Exports are already playing a very important and ever-increasing role in the German wind industry. The export rate lies at 71 percent and the revenue from foreign business amounts to nearly 3.5 billion euros. One reason for the increasing international demand for wind turbines is their increasing cost-efficiency. The costs for this eco-friendly method of energy generation have more than halved since the beginning of the 90s.

International markets
Many countries outside of Europe have much better conditions for generating energy from wind power, such as high inland wind speeds, which are often almost constant all year round, or long coastlines for setting up offshore wind parks. The profitability of wind power projects operating in parallel to the public grid is, not least of all, dependent on energy policy conditions. Many developing and newly-emerging countries already have favourable conditions and incentive schemes in the energy sector. However, in regions in which there are no supporting measures from the energy policy, there are smaller off-grid turbines which offer the possibility of independently providing electricity to households and communal facilities.