Quiz: The world’s wind-power generation capacity increased how much in 2009?

For those of you who don’t subscribe to the bimonthly print edition of Foreign Policy, you’re missing a great feature: the FP Quiz. It has eight intriguing questions about how the world works. The quiz question I’d like to highlight this week is:

The world’s wind-power generation capacity increased how much in 2009?

a) 11 percent    b) 21 percent    c) 31 percent

Answer after the jump …

Answer:

C, 31 percent. The economy may have been sputtering along in 2009, but wind turbines were spinning furiously, with installed wind-power capacity increasing nearly a third from 120.6 gigawatts (GW) at the end of 2008 to 157.9 GW by the end of 2009, according to the Global Wind Energy Council. China more than doubled its wind-power capacity, overtaking Spain — where Don Quixote famously tilted at windmills — for the No. 3 spot. At this rate, it could soon surpass No. 2 Germany and No. 1 United States. (In the photo above from Dec. 10, 2009, wind turbines stand tall outside Dongying, in China’s Shandong province.) 

Here is a table of the top 10 countries when it comes to wind-power capacity as of last December:

Source: Global  Wind Energy Council

And for more questions about how the world works, check out the rest of the FP Quiz.