• The industry is worth over $1.5 billion dollars in annual sales.

• The European wind energy industry has created 50,000 jobs and has developed into a 2.7 billion EURO industry.

• In 1997, 1520MW was installed around the world.

• One Megawatt of installed capacity creates 15 to 19 jobs.

• Annual industry growth since 1995 has averaged 27% globally, and 36% in the EU.

• Europe currently has unrivaled market dominance. In 1996, eight out the top ten turbine manufacturers were European, over 80% of the global demand.

• Due to policy failures the US dominance over the wind power industry in the 1980s has all but collapsed due to the absence of steady and sustained policy incentives. In 1997 Germany took the title from the USA for the country with largest installed capacity.

• Wind power in Europe has developed at a phenomenal rate. With 4,700 MW total capacity, this is 100 times the 473 MW that existed in 1990.

• A modern wind turbine takes less than 4 months on an average site to generate as much energy as was used in its manufacture.

The wind as a source of energy has been used for 4,000 years. From its early start in the pumping water in Persia, it has become one of the most successful of the new renewable energy industries, both in terms of turnover and also newly installed capacity.

The technology has changed from slow multi-blade rotors such as the American farm wind mill to sleek, three bladed rotors which are optimised for grid- connected electricity generation.

In the same way that an aeroplane plane wing is able to create lift by moving forward through the air, the wind turbine also uses a lift force on its blades to turn the rotor around its circular path and so extract energy from the flow of air.

Machines of 1.5MW are now available off the shelf. It is anticipated that large wind farms will increasingly be placed off-shore where the higher cost of installation is overcome by cleaner and more consistent winds, while visual, noise and land-use limitations are avoided