WIND WILL SAVE EUROPE BILLIONS

24 billion Euros of fuel costs avoided from wind energy in 2015
June 14, 2011 (European Wind Energy Association)

"…In 2015 wind power will avoid 23.7 billion Euros of fuel costs - made up of 15.1 billion Euros of avoided coal costs, 6.4 billion Euros of avoided gas costs and 1.7 billion Euros of avoided oil costs to produce electricity.

"In 2020 wind power will avoid 87 billion Euros of fuel costs - made up of 46 billion Euros of avoided gas costs, 27 billion Euros of avoided coal costs, almost 10 billion Euros of avoided oil costs and 4 billion Euros of avoided biomass costs to produce electricity."

With recent announcements from Germany and Italy that they are abandoning nuclear, Europe is going to build even more wind than these projections show and save even more money than previously expected. (click to enlarge)

"These figures are based on the International Energy Agency's data on fuel costs (IEA World Energy Outlook 2010) and Global Wind Energy Council data (GWEC, 2011, Outlook 2010) on "moderate" development of wind power with 460 Gigawatt (GW) of global cumulative wind power capacity installed by 2015. The global trend for installed wind power capacity is impressive, from 60 GW in 2005, to 120 GW in 2008 to 200 GW in 2010…

"Every month in 2009 and 2010, the global wind energy industry installed new wind energy capacity that can produce as much electricity as 1.2 average nuclear reactors…"