More than 68% of New European Electricity Capacity Came From Wind and Solar in 2011 [View all]

[kristopher]

More than 68% of New European Electricity Capacity Came From Wind and Solar in 2011
By Stephen Lacey on Feb 12, 2012 at 10:25 am

As the sovereign debt crisis unfolds in Europe, onlookers have questioned whether the region will stay committed to renewable energy. The answer so far is “yes.”

Even with a few countries pulling back on government support of the industry because of fiscal troubles, 2011 was still a huge year for deployment — with wind and solar alone representing almost 70% of new capacity.

That’s almost a 10-fold increase over deployment in 2000, when only 3.5 GW of renewable energy projects were installed. Last year, 32 GW of renewables — mostly wind and solar — were deployed across European countries.

The figures come from the European Wind Energy Association, which just released a report on industry growth.

Growth in Europe has ...

http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2012/02/12/422649/new-european-electricity-capacity-wind-solar-in-2011/