Greenhouse gas savings
In 2012 estimated wind energy generation saved Australia 7,386,400 tonnes of carbon dioxide. That is equivalent to the removal of 1,641,000 cars from our roads. As an additional environmental benefit, no water is needed for wind farm operation.
Australia has some of the world’s best wind resources. The total operating wind capacity in April 2012 was 2480 megawatts. The amount of installed capacity of wind power has increased by an average of 25 per cent a year over the past decade. Wind energy supplies over 6,800 gigawatt hours of electricity annually - around 2.4 per cent of Australia's overall electricity needs.
Currently there are 59 operating wind farms in Australia, with a total of 1345 operating turbines. South Australia has the largest installed capacity with around 49 per cent of the nation’s total wind capacity.
There are currently over 14,000 megawatts (MW) of large-scale wind farm energy projects proposed around the country, many of them having already received planning permission.
The use of wind power continues to grow around the world. Global installed capacity at the end of 2011 was almost 238 gigawatts - a 22 percent increase on 2009.
In 2011, around 40.5 gigawatts of new wind capacity was installed around the world with a value of around $US68 billion.
The top four wind energy nations are:
- China - 62,364 MW
- United States - 46,919 MW
- Germany - 29,060 MW
- Spain - 21,674 MW
In 2007 the government committed to ensuring that 20 per cent of Australia's electricity supply would come from renewable energy sources by 2020 by establishing the expanded national Renewable Energy Target (RET) scheme. The enhanced RET scheme commenced on 1 January 2010 and is projected to deliver more than 45,000 gigawatt hours of electricity in 2020. It is expected to unlock more than $20 billion in investment over the next decade.