U.S. Passes Germany in Wind, With Help of Chinese

International Agency For Renewables Formed

03 February 2009

Delegates from 75 countries signed up to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) at a conference in Germany. 

Countries from around the world, such as the United Arab Emirates, Montenegro and the Philippines joined Germany, Spain and Denmark.

According to German environment minister Sigmar Gabriel, the formation of the agency marked the conviction that renewable energies could be the main source of energy in future and the need to join forces to overcome obstacles to such a situation.

He added: "We have to recognise the political and economic opportunities. We have to adopt an ambitious follow-up agreement to the Kyoto Protocol in Copenhagen. We have to specify challenging reduction targets in order to launch a global transformation of energy systems towards a low-carbon society.

"Meanwhile, Germany has been overtaken as the world's largest wind power producer by the United States.US wind projects accounted for 42 per cent of the country's total new power capacity.

A surge in wind turbine installation around the world saw total global wind power capacity rise to 120.8 gigawatts. The biggest investor in development of new Wind Power in Texas is China, with the largest wind farm in west Texas. 

The US also looks set to overtake Germany as the biggest producer of solar power, analyst Michael McNamara told Reuters.http://www.irena.org/irena.htm