Despite the recent economic turmoil that has affected many countries throughout the world, The Global Wind Energy Council recently published its annual market statistics, which showed a 21 percent increase in global installed capacity.

The statistics showed that the wind industry installed more than 41,000 megawatts of clean and reliable power in 2011, which brings the total installed capacity globally to more than 238,000 megawatts.

“Despite the state of the global economy, wind power continues to be the renewable generation technology of choice,” said GWEC Secretary General Steve Sawyer. “2011 was a tough year, as will be 2012, but the long term fundamentals of the industry remain very sound. For the second year running, the majority of new installations were outside the OECD, and new markets in Latin America, Africa and Asia are driving market growth.”

Close to 75 countries worldwide have commercial wind power installations and 22 of them have already passed the 1 gigawatt level, according to the report.

The Obama administration recently announced its efforts to continue the trend of developing wind power with mid-Atlantic offshore green energy sources being proposed.