The world’s wind power capacity grew by almost a fifth in 2019 after a year of record growth for offshore windfarms and a boom in onshore projects in the United States and China.
The Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) found that wind power capacity grew by 60.4 gigawatts, or 19 per cent, compared with 2018, in one of the strongest years on record for the global wind power industry.
The growth was powered by a record year for offshore wind, which grew by 6.1GW to make up a tenth of new windfarm installations for the first time.
Ben Backwell, CEO at GWEC said: “The wind energy sector is continuing to see consistent growth, after having unequivocally established itself as a cost-competitive energy source worldwide.”
The council’s annual report found that the United States and China remain the world’s largest markets for onshore wind power development.
Together the two countries make up almost two-thirds of global growth in wind power.
The Asia Pacific region was the global leader for new onshore wind installations in 2019, installing 28.1GW of new capacity, more than half of the total new global capacity.
GWEC had expected 2020 to emerge as a record year for the rollout of wind energy projects, and forecast growth of 20 per cent in the year ahead, but it said the impact of the global coronavirus pandemic was as yet unknown.
The virus outbreak could slow construction of energy projects in line with an economy-wide slowdown in manufacturing and infrastructure development, but the council believes COVID19 could still present an opportunity for the wind industry.
The council said the outbreak could prove to be an economic watershed, and it urged governments to use the growing industry to help galvanise economic recovery.
The call echoes a warning from the boss of the International Energy Agency, Dr Fatih Birol, that the virus could undermine progress in clean energy development unless governments use green investments to help support economic growth.
“We have an important window of opportunity,” Dr Birol said.
“Major economies around the world are preparing stimulus packages.
“A well-designed stimulus package could offer economic benefits and facilitate a turnover of energy capital which have huge benefits for the clean energy transition.”
Mr Backwell said global clean energy growth was not where it needed to be to help keep global temperatures in check as part of the Paris Agreement climate accord.
“If we are to have any chance at reaching our Paris Agreement objectives and remaining on a 1.5-degree Celsius pathway, we need to be installing at least 100GW of wind energy per year, and this needs to rise to 200GW per year and beyond,” he said.
This would mean stronger measures to push incumbent fossil fuels off the grid and a shake-up of administrative structures and regulation to ensure we can go out and build”, he added.
The council had expected that global wind power installations would rise by 76GW this year but will offer a new forecast in the second quarter of the year that takes into account the impact of the coronavirus.
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