Germany’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party has vowed to dismantle wind parks and wind turbines should it win power in the upcoming presidential elections in February, aligning itself with similar sentiments by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. AfD asserts in its election platform that it “rejects the further expansion of wind energy” and has called for cuts to renewable subsidies. 

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Despite frequent criticisms of wind turbines, over the past two decades, wind power has been the leading utility-scale renewable power source, generating 2,311 TWh of electricity in 2023 compared to 1,632 TWh by solar farms. However, over the past five years, solar generation has grown twice as quickly as wind generation in large part due to lower costs and faster construction times of solar farms compared to their wind brethren. Global solar capacity increased by 188% from 2018 to 2023 compared to 80% growth in wind capacity over the timeframe.

Last year, global electricity generation from solar farms exceeded power generation from wind farms since May 2024, marking the longest stretch in history where solar has surpassed wind as the top utility-scale renewable power source. Solar electricity generation exceeded wind generation by 1.65 terawatt hours (TWh) in May and 9.57 TWh in June, energy think tank Ember has revealed. Previously, solar power generation exceeded wind generation in August and June of 2023 but has never before strung together such a sustained stretch of higher generation. However, wind power likely reclaimed its status as the world’s leading renewable energy source in September due to the changing angle of the sun’s rays coupled with rising wind speeds as winter sets in across Europe, North America and Northern Asia. Further, global wind power generation was estimated to be at least 30% greater than solar generation for the entire 2024 because the peak wind generation period is normally during winter when wind output can be more than twice the solar output. 

By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com

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