The world’s wind energy industry could be on track to install nearly 1 terawatt (TW) of new capacity between 2021 and 2030, driven by surging installations in China, Europe, and the United States, energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie said in new research.
China’s targets of wind and solar energy installations this decade, the European Union’s decarbonization plans, and the extension of the production tax credit (PTC) in the United States are all set to incentivize high volumes of wind power capacity installations this decade, according to Wood Mackenzie.
“China’s 1,200 GW target of wind and solar by 2030 will result in 408 GW of new wind capacity from 2021 to 2030, representing 41% of global build. Offshore capacity in the country will grow by 73 GW during this period, an 800% increase in installed capacity in this sector,” said Luke Lewandowski, Wood Mackenzie Research Director.
The EU’s green policies and plans are expected to motivate 248 GW of new wind capacity installations within the next ten years, Lewandowski noted.
In the United States, the extension of the tax credit from late 2020 is set to incentivize 35 GW of new wind capacity installations between 2021 and 2023. From 2024 to 2030, new offshore wind capacity in the U.S. is expected to average 4.5 GW annually, according to WoodMac.
Last year, the wind power industry added 114 GW of new wind capacity globally, up by 82 percent compared to 2019 and the highest global annual installation total on record, Wood Mackenzie’s research showed.
China, and to a lesser extent the United States, was the main growth driver of record global wind capacity additions in 2020, as the phase-out of China’s onshore wind Feed-in-Tariff scheme as of 2021 and the anticipated expiration of U.S. federal tax incentives played a major role in the soaring installations of wind capacity additions last year, research company BloombergNEF (BNEF) said earlier this month.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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