According to “Global Offshore Wind Report 2021” the global offshore wind industry installed 6.1GW of capacity in 2020, down slightly from a record 6.24GW in 2019.
Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) expects a new record year in 2021, as China rushes to install 7.5GW ahead of the expiry of current feed in tariffs (FITs) in this space.
China led the world in new installations for the third year in a row with more than 3 GW of offshore wind grid connected in 2020. Steady growth in Europe accounted for the majority of remaining new capacity, led by the Netherlands, which installed nearly 1.5 GW of new offshore wind in 2020, followed by Belgium (706 MW).
According to the report 235 GW of new capacity will be installed over the next decade under current policies.
However, this is only 11 per cent of the capacity required to meet net zero targets by 2050, and the world has so far installed only 2 per cent of the offshore wind capacity that will be needed by the middle of this century to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.
Currently 35 GW of capacity is installed globally, helping the world avoid 62.5 million tonnes of CO2 emissions – the equivalent of taking 20 million cars off the road – while providing 700,000 jobs across the planet. This is though only 0.5% of global installed electricity capacity.
Reference- Global Offshore Wind Report 2021, Wind Insider, Forbes, The Guardian