World’s top 10 countries in wind energy capacityAccording to a recent report by Power-technology.com, China tops the chart with 221 gigawatt (GW) of installed wind capacity followed by the United States and Germany. Here are the top 10:

1. China
China has a installed capacity of 221 GW and is the leader in wind energy, with over a third of the world’s capacity. It has the world’s largest onshore wind farm with a capacity of 7,965 megawatt (MW), which is five times larger than its nearest rival.

2. United States
The US comes second with 96.4 GW of installed capacity. The country has six of the 10 largest onshore wind farms. These include the Alta Wind Energy Centre in California, the world’s second-largest onshore wind farm with a capacity of 1,548 MW.

3. Germany
With 59.3 GW, Germany has the highest installed wind capacity in Europe. Its largest offshore wind farms are the Gode Windfarms, which have a combined capacity of 582 MW.



4. India
India has the second-highest wind capacity in Asia, with a total capacity of 35 GW. Apart from China, India is the only Asian country to make it to the list. The country has the third- and fourth-largest onshore wind farms in the world -- the 1,500-MW Muppandal wind farm in Tamil Nadu and the 1,064-MW Jaisalmer Wind Park in Rajasthan.

5. Spain
Spain’s 23 GW wind energy capacity, covers 18 per cent of its electricity supply. The report by Power-technology.com said that the Spanish wind industry had been in a steep decline over the past few years, with just 104 MW addition to its energy mix in 2016-2017.

6. United Kingdom
The UK has a total capacity of just over 20.7 GW. It has six of the 10 highest-capacity offshore wind projects in the world. One of these is the Walney project off the coast of Cumbria, North West England, which is the largest offshore wind project in the world.

7. France
France has a installed capacity of 15.3 GW. According to the report, France is currently moving away from nuclear power, which previously delivered 75 per cent of the country’s energy needs.

8. Brazil
With 14.5 GW, Brazil has the largest wind capacity in South America. Wind power increased by 8.9 per cent year-on-year in February 2019, according to the Power-technology.com report. It further added that wind power comes fourth in Brazil’s total energy mix, forming about 8 per cent of its 162.5 GW energy capacity.



9. Canada
Canada’s renewable energy capacity stands at 12.8 GW, with 566 MW of new installed capacity added in 2018. This energy is generated by a total of 299 wind farms with 6,596 turbines, the report said. The 300-MW Rivière-du-Moulin project is the largest wind farm in Canada.

10. Italy
At the bottom of the list is Italy, which reached just over 10 GW in wind energy capacity in 2018. Italy’s wind industry is heavily concentrated in the south and on its islands.