by The world installed 117 gigawatts of new wind power capacity in 2023, a 50% increase from the previous year, making it the best year for new wind projects on record, according to a new report from the industry’s trade association.
The latest Global Wind Report, published by the World Wind Energy Council on Tuesday, examines the state of the global wind industry and the challenges it faces as it expands.
The increase in wind installations “shows that the world is moving in the right direction to combat climate change,” the report said.
But the authors warned that the wind industry must increase its annual growth to at least 320 gigawatts by 2030 to meet the COP28 commitment to triple the world’s installed renewable energy generation capacity by 2030, as well as meet the ambition of the Agreement Paris regarding the addition of a limit. global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit).
“It’s fantastic to see the growth of the wind industry picking up, and we’re proud to have achieved a new annual record,” said GWEC CEO Ben Backwell, “however much more needs to be done to unlock growth .”
Still, the report shows that wind is increasingly “understood and appreciated around the globe for its value as a source of renewable energy,” said George Aluru, CEO of the Electricity Sector Association of Kenya, an industry body for private electricity investors. .
“This increase in renewable energy supply supports climate goals that are consistent with ensuring sustainable development,” he said.
With the increasing impacts of climate change, wind power and other renewable energy sources are seen as key to reducing electricity generation from fossil fuels and mitigating climate change. Renewable energy is the cheapest form of electricity in many parts of the world and among the cheapest in most other places.
The cumulative global wind power capacity is now 1,021 gigawatts.
Christian Andresen, research manager at SINTEF Energy Research, an independent Norway-based institute for applied research in the energy sector, said the report shows that the wind industry is “accelerating” by attracting investments and gaining maturity, and that it could that’s come forward. snowball effect leading to future growth.
For the planet, he said, it shows that ramping up to meet climate goals is possible.
“This is an important building block in the transition towards a net-zero emissions society,” said Andresen.
As in 2022, China led all other countries in new onshore and offshore wind power installations in 2023. It accounted for 65% of new installations, followed by the USA, Brazil and Germany, respectively. Together, these four countries accounted for 77% of new installations worldwide last year.
The report notes that growth in wind power installations is highly concentrated in a few large countries and this links to strong market frameworks for scaling wind installations in those countries. The top five markets at the end of last year were China, the US, Germany, India and Spain.
Still, some other countries and regions are emerging, having seen record growth levels in 2023.
Africa and the Middle East installed nearly 1 gigawatt of wind power capacity in 2023, nearly triple the previous year. With projects coming up in South Africa, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the report predicts a fivefold increase in new offshore wind additions for Africa and the Middle East by 2028 compared to 2023.
Some of the markets to watch include Kenya, where wind power provides about 17% of electricity, the report said. The country has Africa’s largest wind farm, the 310-megawatt Lake Turkana Wind Power Project, and the report notes new large-scale wind projects in the country, including a 1-gigawatt wind farm by local power generator KenGen .
But building wind power installations is expensive and involves high initial investments, and emerging and developing countries have a higher cost of capital and pay higher loan rates to build their wind, which the report said.
Wind energy also faces supply chain and grid challenges, and electricity system innovation is needed to integrate intermittent wind energy into the grid and maintain reliability, said Erin Baker, professor of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research at the University of Massachusetts. Offshore wind requires highly specialized equipment and manufacturing, she said for example, and also requires expertise in financial and business models.
But the accelerating growth of wind energy, the report shows, means that countries are developing the supply chains needed to keep up with this growth, and “almost certainly” cost reductions and improvements in technology will come along with it. together. It’s built around the world, she said.
“Recent growth, and the nation’s support for the wind industry, are hopeful signs that the supply chain is being established,” Baker said.
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