A strong growth of wind power production has been recorded in Italy last year. With a total capacity of 4850 MW including 1114 MW installed during the last twelve months (+30%), 2009 has been a record year for wind energy industry in the Peninsula.

This growth, the highest in history according to Econostrum.info, is "a power generation capacity of 6.7 TWh (terawatt hours), equivalent to 2.1% of the Country's electricity consumption," said in a joint statement the Italian National Agency for Wind Energy (ANEV), the Italian Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Development (ENEA), the Association of Producers of Renewable Energies (APER) and the Italian branch of the International Society of Solar Energy (ISES Italia).

These figures allow Italy to remain the third biggest producer of wind energy in Europe and the sixth in the world.

The total 4850 MW installed in the Country can meet the needs "of nearly 7 million Italian households" and avoid the emission of "4.7 million tonnes of CO2 in the atmosphere," continued the associations, which hope that the Italian government will adjust the rules to exploit the full wind power potential of the Country, "estimated at 16,000 MW".