In the US, the biggest wind farm to date has gotten the green light in Wyoming.
County officials approved the 1000-turbine Chokecherry and Sierra Madre wind farm - which will generate 2000-3000 megawatts (MW) near Rt 80.
The developer, Power Co. Of Wyoming, must now get approval from the state.
And NextEra, which owns 44% of US wind farms, set a record for wind installations this year at 1500 MW. But with low natural gas prices and the expiration of the wind production tax credit, it's looking to Canada for growth next year.
The utility has a backlog of $6.5 billion in wind and solar projects through 2014, split roughly in half between the two, says RenewablesBiz.
South America
Brazil plans to spend $235 billion of investments in energy and biofuels over the next decade, according to its Ministry of Mines and Energy.
The broad plan calls for 36 gigawatts (GW) of hydroelectric plants, 12 GW of biomass plants and 15.6 GW of wind farms.
Although most of Brazil's energy come from hydro, which will continue to drive investment, wind is the fastest growing energy source. At the end of 2011, Brazil had 1.4 GW of wind, which means it will grow 11-fold over the coming decade.
"Contracts signed during the last few years show that wind farms have managed extremely competitive prices, which has spurred the creation of a national industry for equipment to serve the market," says the Ministry's report.
Brazil's $93 billion investments in hydro require dams that are devastating the Amazon rain forest.
Meanwhile, Peru is getting its first large scale wind farms, the largest on the continent outside of Brazil.
Developer ContourGlobal bought two wind farms with a combined capacity of 114 MW that are under construction near Lima.
New York-based ContourGlobal has a 3000 MW renewable energy porfolio in 15 countries, including wind, solar and biomass.
On the solar side, Chinese developer Sky Solar is getting an infusion of $900 million from China Development Bank to build up to 300 MW of solar PV plants in Peru's southern neighbor, Chile.
Spanish Developer Commits $1 Billion to Japan Solar Projects
Spain's Gestamp Solar is looking outside its own troubled economy to take advantage of Japan's clean energy development plans – saying it will invest nearly $1.2 billion over the next three years.
The company, which specializes in utility-scale size solar, plans to build 300 MW during that time. The majority will be rooftop arrays of 30 MW each.
That's a lot of solar when you consider Gestamp's entire portfolio across 13 countries is 500 MW.
UK Adds Solar, Bioenergy Strategy
After including renewable energy heat to its Renewable Energy Roadmap last year - the world's first such incentive - the UK says it will detail plans to also add solar later this month.
By the end of the year, the government says it will introduce a Bioenergy Strategy that gives "a clear signal on the most cost-effective and sustainable role for bioenergy in heat, transport and electricity."
