2023 was a record year for wind installations as world ramps up clean energy, report says

CARLOS MUREITHI
Tue, April 16, 2024 




 Wind turbines operate on March 7, 2024, in Palm Springs, Calif. According to a new report published Tuesday, April 16, 2024, last year, marked the best year for new wind projects. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis, File)

The world installed 117 gigawatts of new wind power capacity in 2023, a 50% increase from the year before, making it the best year for new wind projects on record, according to a new report by the industry's trade association.

The latest Global Wind Report, published Tuesday by the Global Wind Energy Council, explores the state of the global wind industry and the challenges it's facing in its expansion.

The increase in wind installations “shows that the world is moving in the right direction in combating 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 in order to meet the COP28 pledge to triple the world’s installed renewable energy generation capacity by 2030, as well as to meet the Paris Agreement’s ambition of capping global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit).

“It’s great to see wind industry growth picking up, and we are proud of reaching 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 becoming “better understood and appreciated across the globe for the value it brings as a renewable energy source,” said George Aluru, CEO of the Electricity Sector Association of Kenya, an industry body for private investors in electricity.

“This increased renewable energy supply supports climate goals in line with ensuring sustainable development,” he said.

With the growing impacts of climate change, wind power and other renewable energy sources are seen as a key to reducing electricity generation from fossil fuels and mitigating climate change. Renewables are the cheapest form of electricity in many parts of the world and among the cheapest in most others.

The global cumulative wind power capacity now totals 1,021 gigawatts.

Christian Andresen, research manager at SINTEF Energy Research, a Norway-based independent institute for applied research in the energy sector, said the report shows that the wind industry is “picking up pace” by attracting investments and gaining maturity, and that may lead to a snowball effect leading to future growth.

For the planet, he said, it indicates that it is possible to ramp up to reach climate targets.

“This is an important building block in the transition towards a net-zero emission society,” said Andresen.

As was the case in 2022, China led all other countries for both new onshore and offshore wind power installations in 2023. It had 65% of new installations, and was followed by the U.S., Brazil and Germany, respectively. Together, these four countries accounted for 77% of new installations globally last year.

The report notes that growth in wind power installations is highly concentrated in a few big countries and links that to strong market frameworks to scale wind installations in those countries. The top five markets at the end of last year remained as China, the U.S., Germany, India and Spain.

Still, some other countries and regions are coming up, having witnessed record levels of growth in 2023.

Africa and the Middle East installed nearly 1 gigawatt of wind power capacity in 2023, almost triple that of the previous year. With upcoming projects in South Africa, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the report predicts that new onshore wind additions for Africa and the Middle East will grow fivefold by 2028 compared with 2023.

Some of the markets to watch include Kenya, where windpower provides around 17% of electricity, the report said. The country has the largest wind farm in Africa, the 310-megawatt Lake Turkana Wind Power Project, and the report notes new planned large-scale wind projects in the country, including a 1-gigawatt wind park by local power generator KenGen.

But building wind power installations is expensive and entails high up-front investments, and emerging and developing countries face higher cost of capital and pay higher loan rates to build out their wind, the report said.

Wind energy also faces supply chain and grid challenges, and innovation in the electricity system is needed to integrate intermittent wind energy onto the grid while retaining reliability, said Erin Baker, professor of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research at the University of Massachusetts. Offshore wind, she said as an example, has some very specialized equipment and manufacturing, and also requires expertise in finance and business models.

But the accelerating growth of wind energy, as shown in the report, means that countries are developing the supply chains needed to keep this growth up, and it will “almost certainly” lead to reductions in cost and improvements in the technology as more and more is built around the world, she said.

“The recent growth, and nations support for the wind industry, are hopeful signs that the supply chain is being established,” said Baker.

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Group Says Record 117 GW of New Wind Power Generation Installed in 2023

Darrell Proctor
Tue, April 16, 2024 



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).