Navigant Research claims that, as the cost of wind energy plunges due to technological improvements and efficiencies of scale, many governments are exploring market-oriented policy options that decrease costs for supporting governments, ratepayers, and other stakeholders. Within this changing environment, wind growth in some of the countries with the most installed wind power capacity has stalled while others are warming up for further expansion. According to a new report from Navigant Research, China is ranked a booming market for wind capacity growth.

“Perhaps the most important insight from this analysis is a move toward lower but stable growth rates,” says Roberto Rodriguez Labastida, senior research analyst with Navigant Research. “While the mix of countries seeking to grow wind capacity continues to expand, today, only China is ranked by Navigant Research as Booming, while the United States, India, and Germany are categorized as Outperformers, and 21 and 17 countries, respectively, are classified as Growing or Stalled.”

The increased depth of the global wind energy market is expected to provide the industry some stability, as it will be less dependent on the policy of individual countries, according to the report. However, resulting market fragmentation means that manufacturers and developers must be flexible, adapting their skills to work in different environments, in order to thrive.

The report, Global Wind Energy Policy Update, examines the strengths and weaknesses of the wind policy regimes across 42 countries based on an analysis of key policy, economic, and structural factors. Countries are rated on four criteria: policy stability, past performance, sector potential, and economic forecast. Each country covered in this report is also ranked across four categories of attractiveness to investors: Booming, Outperformers, Growing, or Stalled.