(Bloomberg) — Installations of wind power in the U.S.

surged sixfold last year, making it the largest market for the

technology worldwide after China.

The U.S. added 4.7 gigawatts of new onshore wind capacity

in 2014 compared with 764 megawatts a year earlier, largely due

to the extension of the Production Tax Credit in January 2013,

Bloomberg New Energy Finance said today in a statement. Total

U.S. onshore wind installations are now 64.2 megawatts.

China remains the biggest market for wind with

installations rising a record 38 percent, or 20.7 gigawatts,

from a year earlier, according to BNEF. China’s grid-connected

wind-energy capacity now is 96 gigawatts, more than that of the

entire U.K. power fleet. Wind energy is China’s largest power

source after coal and hydropower.

“This year has seen a couple of special circumstances come

together so it probably isn’t a blueprint for future

development,” David Hostert, European wind-energy analyst for

BNEF, said in the statement. “What is remarkable though is that

more than 1 gigawatt was repowered with new turbines on existing

projects. This means making better use of existing wind sites

and opening up new opportunities for developers and asset owners

in a mature market.”

Germany installed 3.2 gigawatts in 2014, Brazil 2.7

gigawatts and India 2.3 gigawatts, according to BNEF. Both

German and Brazil totals are records for their countries.

To contact the reporter on this story:

Louise Downing in London at

ldowning4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:

Reed Landberg at

landberg@bloomberg.net

Randall Hackley, Ana Monteiro