2004 was a busy year globally for both the wind and solar industries. But it's worth stacking them up against each other to do a basic comparison;

2004 - Newly Installed Capacity

Solar - 927 Megawatts

Wind - 7,976 Megawatts

2004 - Industry turnover in Billions of US Dollars

Solar - 6.5

Wind - 9.79

The quick conclusions are then;

1. Wind per installed megawatt is much cheaper than solar
2. Solar production is way behind wind in added capacity
3. Solar is not far behind wind in turnover

However, I suspect that in turnover in billions of dollars, solar power will overtake wind power possibly as soon as 2006. But for the investor, the paradox is that there are many more pure solar play stocks than wind stocks. And I expect this to continue . . .