In its report titled, ‘Small and Medium Wind Market Report 2013’, RenewableUK has revealed that 2012 figures represent an all-time high in turbine installation rate across all scales of the small and medium wind sector.
Of the various scales, the installations of 15kW-100kW section has more than doubled in 2012 compared to the previous year, while installations of 1.5kW-15kW and 100kW-500kW sections grew by 39% and 56% respectively.
According to the report, the UK has installed around 23,597 small and medium wind turbines with a cumulative capacity of over 102.3MW during 2005 and 2012, up 21% compared to 2011.
Besides domestic installations, around 24,939 units were exported by UK manufacturers during the period, the report claims.
The report has attributed the increase turbine installation rate to increase in demand for renewable energy and feed-in tariff (FiT) support.
RenewableUK chief executive Maria McCaffery said that the UK with about 20% rural population needs to find paths to enable the rural economic growth and wind power is contributing to the government’s efforts.
"This technology brings over £100m into the rural economy and in the past couple of years we have seen the market almost double in size," added McCaffery.
However, RenewableUK expressed concerns over the UK government’s move to further reduce the FiT support, and over amalgamation of all turbines under 100kW into the same level of FiT quota that it said would pose a serious threat to the growth of the industry.
In the report, RenewableUK has reckoned that problems such as reducing FiT rates and increasing difficulties in consent procedures would lead a market contraction of around 8% in 2013.
