OTTAWA, Oct. 25 (UPI) -- Canada's wind power trade group says the industry added $736 million to the country's gross domestic product in 2005.
The Canadian Wind Energy Association, or CanWEA, said revenue from all facets of the wind industry in Canada increased 100 percent compared to 2004, to $548 million, and predicts another doubling in 2006.
"It is clear that wind energy has begun to move from the margins to the mainstream of Canadian economic activity," said Robert Hornung of CanWEA. "With provincial governments seeking a 10-fold increase in installed wind energy capacity in Canada over the next decade, we have only just begun to scratch the surface of wind energy's potential economic contribution to Canada."
CanWEA, in a news release, estimates 1,200 full-time equivalent employees worked in the wind industry in 2005 -- 65 percent more than 2004. That's expected to rise to 5,000 by 2011.
"Wind energy represents a tremendous industrial development opportunity for Canada and we are now starting to see some of the potential benefits," said Hornung.
CanWEA tallied the numbers from a survey of more than 80 percent of its 250 members.
