The modern wind power industry began in 1979 with the serial production of wind turbines by Danish manufacturers Kuriant, Vestas, Nordtank, and Bonus. These early turbines were small by today's standards, with capacities of 20 to 30 kW each. Since then, they have increased greatly in size, while wind turbine production has expanded to many countries all over the world.

There are now many thousands of wind turbines operating, with a total nameplate capacity of 121,188 MW of which wind power in Europe accounts for 55% (2008). World wind generation capacity more than quadrupled between 2000 and 2006, doubling about every three years. By comparison, photovoltaic has been doubling about every two years (48%/year), although from a smaller base (15,200 MW in 2008). 81% of wind power installations are in the USand Europe. The share of the top five countries in terms of new installations fell from 71% in 2004 to 62% in 2006, but climbed to 73% by 2008 as those countries -- the United States, Germany, Spain, China, and India -- have seen substantial capacity growth in the past two years (see chart).

By 2010, the World Wind Energy Association expects 160GW of capacity to be installed worldwide  up from 73.9 GW at the end of 2006, implying an anticipated net growth rate of more than 21% per year.