A report from a leading wind power trade association said a record 117 GW of new wind energy generation capacity was installed worldwide last year, a 50% increase from the prior year. The “Global Wind Report 2024,” published April 16 by the Global Wind Energy Council, said “the world is moving in the right direction in combating climate change” but also said growth in wind power still lags the generation capacity needed to meet climate goals set by global governments.
The report said that cumulative global wind power capacity now totals 1,021 GW. The report’s authors said that annual growth, though, needs to reach at least 320 GW by the end of this decade to meet the goals outlined at last year’s COP28 climate conference, as well as the targets of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change.
Jonathan Cole, CEO of London, UK-based Corio Generation and chair of the Global Wind Energy Council, wrote, “Looking at this year’s ‘Global Wind Report,’ we can see strong progress by the wind industry in commissioning huge volumes of renewable energy. 2023 saw the highest number of new installations in history for onshore wind [over 100 GW] and second highest for offshore wind [11 GW]. We passed the symbolic milestone of 1 TW installed globally and, at the current rate, we expect to hit 2 TW before 2030.”
Cole noted, though, that “Nonetheless we must acknowledge, firstly, that this rate of growth still leaves us far short of the tripling target and, secondly, that our sector has been tested by the tough macroeconomic environment. Global inflationary pressures, rising cost of capital and fragility in the supply chain have affected our ability to ramp up in many regions. Given the urgency of the action needed, we do not have time to retreat and wait for these problems to go away—we need decisive action by our political and industrial leaders to address the big challenges before us.”
China Remains Global Leader
The report said China remains the global leader in building wind power generation capacity, with 65% of new installations in 2023. The U.S., Brazil, and Germany are in the next three spots, with those three along with China accounting for 77% of new installed wind power last year.
The top five markets for wind power in 2023 were the same as the prior year: China, the U.S., Germany, India, and Spain. Other areas of growth include Africa and the Middle East, which installed about 1 GW of new capacity last year, nearly three times the capacity that came online there in 2022. The report’s authors said they expect onshore wind power additions will grow nearly fivefold by 2028 compared to 2023 levels, thanks to new installations in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and South Africa.
The report noted Kenya as a country to watch. Wind power provides about 17% of Kenya’s electricity, and that country is home to Africa’s largest wind farm, the 310-MW Lake Turkana Wind Power Project that came online in 2019. Kenya Electricity Generating Co. (KenGen) is planning to build a 1-GW wind project in the country’s northwestern region, in Marsabit. KenGen has said that project will be built in phases and is expected to be fully operational in 2028.
Kenya is among country’s that has a goal of receiving 100% of its electricity from renewable energy resources by 2030. The country already receives about 92% of its power from renewables, with nearly half from geothermal and about 30% from hydro.
Reaching 2 TW of Capacity
Ben Backwell, CEO of GWEC, said it took the world “over 40 years to reach the 1-TW mark of worldwide installed wind power,” and noted there are now just seven years “to install the next 2 TW. While this is possible, it will require an unprecedented level of focus, determination, collaboration and ingenuity to reach the goal.”
Backwell said, “An unprecedented number of countries have now established ambitious national targets—particularly those with strong offshore resources—including major industrial economies and large emerging markets such as Japan, South Korea, Australia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Kenya. Supporting these countries to push through regulatory complexity and scale up investment will play a big part in accelerating wind installations beyond 300 GW per year.”
Feng Zhao, head of strategy and market intelligence for GWEC, said, “After two years of relatively ‘low’ growth, onshore wind installations in China bounced back in 2023 with more than 69 GW commissioned, a new record. In the U.S., despite a last-quarter rush, with developers installing more new wind capacity in Q4 2023 than in the previous three quarters combined, only 6.4 GW of onshore wind capacity was added for the entire year, the lowest level since 2014.”
Zhao noted that “Total onshore wind additions in North America dropped to 8.1 GW last year, 16% lower than 2022. The decline was driven primarily by the slowdown of onshore wind growth in the world’s second-largest wind power market—the U.S.”
The U.S. wind power industry is poised to add more generation capacity; the offshore wind sector already has announced multiple gigawatt-scale projects this year. Construction continues on the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind installation, which is expected online in 2026. The project’s 2.6 GW of generation capacity would make it the largest wind power facility in the U.S.
—Darrell Proctor is a senior associate editor for POWER (@POWERmagazine).