Wind power a growing energy source worldwide
Waves break on a jetty supporting wind turbines in the Channel port of Boulogne-sur-mer, France, Nov. 12, 2013.
In 2012 French President Francois Hollande pledged to reduce the country's nuclear dependency from 75% to 50% by 2025.
California
Giant wind turbines are powered by strong prevailing winds near Palm Springs, Calif.
A U.S. government report concluded that wind energy could generate 20 percent of the electricity produced in the U.S. by 2030, as much as is currently provided by nuclear reactors. The report envisions more than 75,000 new wind turbines, many of them bigger than those in use today, and many of them in offshore waters to increase production.
California
Giant wind turbines are powered by strong prevailing winds near Palm Springs, Calif.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, wind power generated 4.1 percent of total U.S. energy in 2013, up from 3.5 percent one year earlier.
Massachusetts
A Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) wind turbine turns in front of a 1951 megawatt fossil fuel power plant in Charlestown, Mass., Sept.18, 2013.
The wind turbine powers the MWRA waste water pumping station at that site and the power plant uses natural gas and oil.
Honduras
A farmer cleans a plot of weeds near windmills in Cerro de Hula on the outskirts of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Sept. 30, 2014.
Cerro de Hula is the first wind energy plant of Honduras and the largest one in Central America.
Great Britain
The moon rises behind the turbines of Whitelee Wind Farm in Glasgow, Scotland, Oct. 7, 2014.
Whitelee Wind Farm is the largest on-shore wind farm in the U.K., using 215 turbines to produce a total capacity of 539 megawatts.
Great Britain
Turbines of the Burbo Bank off shore wind farm lay in the wake of a maintenance boat in the mouth of the River Mersey in Liverpool, England, May 12, 2008.
The Burbo Bank Offshore Wind Farm comprises 25 wind turbines and is capable of generating up to 90 megawatts electricity, enough power for approximately 80,000 homes.
The site is run by Danish energy company Dong Energy.
Canary Islands
Wind turbines are pictured near the upper reservoir of the Gorona power station on the Spanish Canary island of El Hierro.
The smallest of the Canary Islands, El Hierro is hoping to become the first island in the world to generate 100% of it's electricity from renewable resources by combining hydo and wind power. The hydro-wind power project integrates a wind farm, a pump unit and a hydroelectric plant. The wind farm is able to supply power directly to the network and simultaneously feed a group of pumping water into a higher reservoir tank as an energy storage system to be used when the wind dies down.
Germany
Turbines from several wind farms at the so-called "HelWin-Cluster", located 22 miles north of the German island of Heligoland, Nov. 5, 2014.
Utilities are keen to invest in offshore wind, which the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) says is the fastest-growing power technology in Europe.
Japan
An offshore wind turbine 100 meters tall and with a blade span of 40 meters, stands in the sea off the coast of the town of Naraha in Fukushima prefecture, Japan, Oct. 4, 2013.
Japan's floating windmill consortium, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Shimizu Construction, Hitachi and others have set a two megawatt floating windmill 12.4 miles off the coast of Fukushima power plants with two more turbines to be launched in two years.
Great britain
Installed wind turbines generate electricity in the shadow of Drax, Europe's biggest coal fired power station, in Selby, England, Aug. 24, 2010.
Fully operational the Rusholme wind farm will create more energy than Drax.
Germany
Workers lay red tubes which will house underground electricity cables for German firm Amprion near Raesfeld, Germany, Oct. 23, 2014.
Germany is expanding its electricity grid in order to connect new offshore wind parks in the North Sea. The country is pursuing an aggressive renewable energy strategy and is in the process of closing all of its nuclear power plants.
Great Britain
The tide comes in against a backdrop of the Burbo Bank Offshore Wind Farm near New Brighton at the mouth of the river Mersey in northwest England, June 15, 2009.
The Burbo Bank Offshore Wind Farm creates enough power for approximately 80,000 homes.
France
A worker installs controls in the assembly of the rotor hub of an E-70 wind turbine manufactured by German company Enercon at a wind farm in Meneslies, Picardie region, France, July 23, 2014.
In July, France announced a package of tax breaks and low-cost loans to improve insulation in buildings and boost investment in renewable energy, which is supposed to provide 40 percent of the country's electricity by 2030.
Germany
Wind turbines spin at the Alpha Ventus offshore wind park in the North Sea approximately 43 miles north of the German coast, April 29, 2010.
Alpha Ventus, Germany's first offshore wind farm, delivers 60 megawatts of power from its 12 turbines.
Greece
The blades of turbines on a wind farm catch the wind in front of Aegean Sea off the eastern coast of Greece.
Under pressure from the European Union and the terms of the Kyoto Protocol to cut its current reliance on coal for energy production, Greece green-lighted several wind farm projects. The wind farms are expected to reduce a national energy deficit that currently forces Greece to import electricity from neighboring countries, mainly Bulgaria and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, according to a recent report by the state Regulatory Authority for Energy (RAE).
California
Emissions-producing diesel trucks and cars pass non-polluting windmills along the 10 freeway near Banning, Calif., Dec. 8, 2009.
More than 500 new wind turbines representing 1,087 megawatts were installed in the U.S. in 2013.
Germany
A rainbow is seen over fields and wind engines near Wilster, northern Germany, Aug. 18, 2013.
By the end of 2013, China, the U.S., Brazil, Canada and Germany remained the top countries for total installed renewable power capacity according to the Renewables 2014 Global Status Report.
Germany
The jack-up installation vessel "Bold Tern" stands at the nearly completed Riffgat offshore wind farm in the North Sea near Borkum, Germany, June 23, 2013.
The Riffgat facility includes 30 turbines with a capacity of 3.6 megawatts each for a total output of 108 megawatts, enough to provide power to 120,000 households.
Germany is pursuing the construction of offshore wind farms in the North Sea as well as the Baltic Sea, though some projects have been hampered by a lack of adequate under sea cables to bring the power onshore.
Germany
The moon rises behind a wind farm near the village of Ludwigsburg, Germany, Oct. 5, 2014.
Germany ranked second to China in terms of annual investment in the wind energy sector and production according to the Renewables 2014 Global Status Report.
China
Windmills and a power plant can be seen in the distance as beach-goers watch a sunset in the city of Dongfang. on the western side of China's island province of Hainan, June 18, 2014.
Already the world's largest producer of wind power, China plans a massive push for additional wind energy.