ABSTRACT
PIERRE TCHAKOUA, RENÉ WAMKEUE, MOHAND OUHROUCHE, FOUAD SLAOUI-HASNAOUI, TOMMY ANDY TAMEGHE, AND GABRIEL EKEMB
12.1 INTRODUCTION
Energy conversion and efficiency improvement have become a worldwide priority to secure an energy supply and address the challenges of climate change, greenhouse gas emission reduction, biodiversity protection, and renewable technology development. In 2011, renewable sources accounted for nearly 50% of the estimated globally added electric capacity evaluated at 208 GW [1]. Among all renewable energy sources, wind energy is the fastest-growing sector in terms of installed capacity. As shown in Figure 1, the cumulative installed wind power capacity reached 283 GW in 2011, which represents nearly 3% of global electricity production. Furthermore, the contribution of wind power to the world total generation capacity is expected to reach 8% by 2018 [1-3].
