Brazilian wind capacity had reached 1.5 GW by the end of 2011 according to statistics released yesterday by the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC).

Globally, the wind industry installed just over 41 GW in 2011, bringing total installed capacity to over 238 GW, an increase of 21% during the year. Commercial wind power installations are now in place in over 75 countries worldwide. Brazil joined the growing numbers of countries with over 1 GW of installed capacity during 2011 – that ‘club’ now numbers 22 countries, according to GWEC .

Referring to the global wind market, GWEC Secretary General, Steve Sawyer, commented that:

“2011 was a tough year, as will be 2012, but the long term fundamentals of the industry remain very sound".

China, which ranks as the world's largest wind energy market, ended 2011 with cumulative capacity of over 62 GW. India had total installations of just over 16 MW by the end of the year - having added over 3 MW in 2011. EU installed capacity reached 94 GW, with newly installed capacity during 2011 of 9.6 GW.

The US bounced back from a difficult year in 2010, with new installations in 2011 of over 6.8 GW, while Canada saw a record year – and saw its total new capacity surpass the 5 GW level.

Latin America overall added over 1.2 GW in new capacity. New Brazilian installations contributed 587 MW of that, to take the Brazilian total to just over 1.5 GW.

Pedro Perrelli, Executive Director of the Brazilian Wind Energy Association (ABEEOLICA) commented that:

“Brazil reached the 1 GW milestone during 2011, and has a pipeline of more than 7,000 MW to be completed before the end of 2016.”

According to Perrelli, while Brazil has attracted significant investment in wind, much of this has been facilitated by the policies of government owned development bank, BNDES. Perelli believes that:

"a new policy framework with clear rules for the future is increasingly necessary to keep the pace of growth strong."

The full report and statistics are available from the GWEC website.