Global wind power generation doubled in 3 years

The world added 2,100 MW of new wind energy-generating capacity in 1998, doubling the capacity of three years earlier, a private U.S. environmental research organisation said.
By the end of 1998, overall wind energy-generating capacity world-wide was pushed to 9,600 MW, the Worldwatch Institute said.
With sales of roughly $ 2 bn in 1998, wind power has also become one of the fastest growing industries, it said.
In the longer run, the use of wind power as an energy source could easily surpass that of hydropower, which supplies about 23 % of the world's electricity, the institute said.
In the future, the wind power market will expand beyond Germany and the United States, which have been leading the world in its use, to include Japan, Canada and Italy, it said.