According to the latest GWEC Market Intelligence, nearly 7 GW of wind power capacity was auctioned globally in Q1 2021 – a 160% year-on-year increase compared to Q1 2020, which saw only 2.7 GW auctioned due to a slowdown caused by the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Leading supply chain expert and industry veteran Julian Brown has joined the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) team as Senior Advisor – Offshore Wind Supply Chain.
The Leaders Climate Summit promised to be a big moment on the (so far virtual) road to COP26. With global leaders setting out their updated NDCs and climate strategies ahead of the Glasgow-bound conference in November, it’s fair to say that global climate ambition has never been higher. Now that the dust has settled, it seems like a good moment to take stock of what the flurry of announcements means for renewables – and whether the ambition will be matched by action.
The Global Wind Energy Council (“GWEC”), the international wind power industry association, and champion kitesurfer Lewis Crathern announced today that they have joined forces to advocate for wind power across the world.
Leading wind energy corporates and associations from around the world have today launched the Global Wind Energy Coalition for COP26. Convened by the Global Wind Energy Council (“GWEC”), the voice of the global wind industry and RenewableUK (“RUK”), the wind energy trade association for the UK, the Global Wind Energy Coalition will carry out a series of activities to help governments, economies and communities to raise ambition and remove barriers to the massive scaling up in investments in wind power in order to reach Net Zero targets and stop dangerous global warming.
2020 was the best year in history for the global wind industry with 93 GW of new capacity installed – a 53 per cent year-on-year increase – but a new report published by the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) warns that this growth is not sufficient to ensure the world achieves net zero by 2050.
GWEC Market Intelligence today released the preliminary rankings for the world’s top five wind turbine original equipment manufacturers (“OEMs”). Danish supplier Vestas held the title as the world’s largest supplier of wind turbines in 2020, thanks to the Danish supplier’s wide geographic diversification strategy, with new installations in 32 markets last year, and strong performance in the United States (US), Australia, Brazil, Netherland, France, Poland, Russia and Norway.
According to the latest data released by GWEC Market Intelligence, 2020 was a record year for wind power growth in the Asia Pacific. This growth was driven by China, which installed 52 GW of new wind power capacity in 2020 according to initial data – double what the country installed in 2019 and more capacity installed in a single year by any country in history.
The Global Wind Energy Council India (GWEC India) announced today that Martand Shardul, previously a Fellow at The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), has joined GWEC India as its first Policy Director. Martand has more than a decade of experience in public policy, clean energy analytics and digital transformation in India and beyond.
According to the latest data released by GWEC Market Intelligence, 2020 was a record year for wind power growth in both North and Latin America, with nearly 22 GW of capacity installed despite COVID-19 impacts, demonstrating the incredible resilience of the wind industry and solidifying its crucial role in the region.
According to the latest data released by GWEC Market Intelligence, the global offshore wind industry had its second-best year ever in 2020 installing over 6 GW of new capacity, keeping growth on track despite the impacts of COVID-19 felt in other energy sectors. This growth was driven by a record year in China, which lead the world in new annual offshore wind capacity for the third year in a row, and installed over half of the new offshore wind capacity globally last year.
According to the latest data released by GWEC Market Intelligence, the global offshore wind industry had its second-best year ever in 2020 installing over 6 GW of new capacity, keeping growth on track despite the impacts of COVID-19 felt in other energy sectors. This growth was driven by a record year in China, which lead the world in new annual offshore wind capacity for the third year in a row, and installed over half of the new offshore wind capacity globally last year.
– Today the leading global renewable energy bodies, The Global Wind Energy Council and The Global Solar Council, jointly called upon the government of Mexico to urgently restore the country’s transition away from expensive and polluting fossil fuels, and reset the course to a sustainable future based on competitive, clean renewable energy.
According to new analysis by GWEC Market Intelligence in its latest Q4 2020 Wind Energy Auction Update, nearly 30 GW of new wind power capacity was awarded globally through auctions in the second half of 2020, which is a slight increase compared to the 28 GW awarded during H2 2019. This surge in new auctioned capacity is a clear signal that the industry is back on track and committed to building up the global pipeline of wind power projects.
The 2020 new wind power capacity figures for China, released yesterday by the National Energy Administration (NEA), are truly formidable. The NEA announced that a staggering 71.7 GW of new wind capacity was installed last year – more than double China’s previous annual growth record and far exceeding GWEC’s Q3 2020 expectations.
GWEC Market Intelligence has published the second edition of its annual Wind O&M Service Provider Overview and Database, which shows that the global wind O&M service market is set to experience a major boom over the next five years. While the latest GWEC Market Intelligence market outlook expects a solid 3 per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for new wind installations from 2020-2024, the CAGR for the aftersales and service market is expected to be in the double digits over the same period.
The pandemic tested the wind industry like never before in 2020, and the wind sector responded with Resolve, Resilience and Resourcefulness.
The Global Wind Blade Supply Chain Update 2020 marks GWEC Market Intelligence’s second key component assessment, which is part of the GWEC Market Intelligence service that provides insights and data-based analysis on the development of the wind industry.
As the third largest carbon emitter in the world, decarbonising India’s energy system is crucial to achieve global decarbonisation targets and support international efforts to keep global warming under 1.5°C pre-industrial levels – and wind power will play a key role for India to achieve the country’s climate targets.
Onshore wind energy currently stands as the second largest renewable energy sources in India – the world’s third-largest producer and fourth-largest consumer of electricity. Aiming to ensure energy security through the country’s Low Carbon Emission Pathways, there is a clear need for renewables to play a bigger role in diversifying its energy mix, not only to limit the effects of global warming, but also to reduce pollution, create new economic opportunities, and achieve Prime Minister Modi’s vision of ‘Atma Nirbhar Bharat’, or a ‘Self-reliant India’.
From its first 102 MW Donghai Bridge Wind Farm near Shanghai commissioned in 2010, China has since been busy building swathes of turbines at sea with nearly 7 GW of capacity already installed as of December 2019. While China is considered a late bloomer in the offshore wind industry, it is expected to surpass offshore wind pioneers like Germany and the UK in terms of cumulative installations by as early as this year.
The Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC), joined by Greenpeace and REN21, has announced the winner of the first edition of the “REvolutionaries: The Steve Sawyer Memorial Award,” launched in 2020 to honour the life’s work of late GWEC CEO Steve Sawyer, a pioneer of the global energy transition.
The Global Wind Energy Council has released its quarterly update on the global wind auctions database, which shows that a total of 2.17 GW of wind power capacity was auctioned globally, of which 1.77 GW was in Europe and 0.4 GW in Asia-Pacific.
Europe is considered the cradle for modern wind turbine technologies, which explains why European OEMs such as Vestas and Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy are today’s global leaders in wind turbine manufacturing and turbine technology innovation. Although most Asian suppliers have historically relied on turbine technologies licensed from Europe to enter the wind industry, Asia Pacific has now become the world’s largest wind turbine manufacturing hub after a decade of development. In 2019, GWEC saw eight Asian turbine suppliers making the cut in the world’s top fifteen supplier ranking, as per GWEC Market Intelligence’s latest report ‘Supply Side Data 2019’.
Global Wind Organisation is the industry body responsible for safety training standards for over 90,000 of the world’s wind energy workers has revealed its network is emerging from Covid-19 lockdown. There are over 350 GWO Certified Training Centres in 43 countries around the world and up to 83% told a recent survey that they will have reopened their doors by the end of May.
In the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, many voices are calling for society to accelerate investment in green energy to help economies recover. GWEC CEO Ben Backwell highlights five key actions that governments must take to power a sustainable recovery and how the wind industry can help.
By the end of 2019, the top 15 wind farm owner-operators held over one-third of the total 650 GW of onshore and offshore assets globally. The newly merged China Energy (formerly Guodian Group and Shenhua Group) is by far the largest asset owner, with more than double the capacity under their ownership compared to the second place China Huaneng. The non-Chinese top asset owner are active globally – Iberdrola, EDPR, Enel Green Power, RWE, Acciona, EDF, NextEra and Berkshire Hathaway Energy.
India is the world’s fourth-largest onshore wind market by installations, with 37.5 GW of capacity as of 2019. Technical potential at 120-metre hub height is a whopping 695 GW, according the National Institute of Wind Energy, and the government has set a wind capacity target of 60 GW by 2022 and 140 GW by 2030. Wind is already the second most competitive energy source on India’s grid.
As the world battles the coronavirus pandemic, it is critical to maintain sight of long-term climate objectives. International commitment to climate action can be the key to enabling economies to recover and rebuild more resilient systems once the storm has passed. Acceleration of renewables could power a green economic recovery, unlocking at least $50 trillion to boost global GDP and power millions of renewable energy jobs by 2050, according to the recent Global Renewables Outlook by IRENA.
As part of GWEC Market Intelligence’s services, the database on global wind auctions is an important tool for the industry to stay up-to-date on all the latest developments and business opportunities around the world. While the industry has been impacted by the COVID-19 crisis and auctions have been delayed or postponed in a few countries, other countries have found solutions to continue their scheduled auctions to continue driving forward wind power growth.
Of all the possible shocks any of us thought we would have to deal with only a few short weeks ago, a deadly, global pandemic in the form of Covid-19 just wasn’t on anybody’s
radar. Like many other manufacturing or service enterprises, supply chains in the wind sector will continue to be impacted in the weeks and months ahead. Some project mile-stones
will be deferred, with impacts being felt throughout the whole value chain, whilst at the operational level; turbines, blades, component and material orders will be cancelled or unfulfilled.
As the COVID-19 pandemic widens overseas, many Asian countries now going through a second wave of outbreak and massive lockdowns continue to be in effect across South East Asia (SEA). Amid the dark clouds, GWEC Asia has not slowed down our policy efforts and have taken massive steps forwards in one of our priority markets: Vietnam.
With a coastline of more than 3,000 km and an average wind speeds of 8m/s-9m/s in the south, Vietnam´s potential to develop and generate wind power is substantial. In two reports both by the World Bank Group, Wind Resource Atlas and Going Global: Expanding Offshore Wind to Emerging Markets, a whopping 24 GW of onshore and 475 GW of offshore wind technical capacity was identified across Vietnam. By the end of 2019, Vietnam has a total cumulative installed wind power capacity of 487.4 MW, which includes 99 MW of intertidal projects, the first of its kind in the ASEAN region. Due to the strong flows of foreign and domestic investors into Vietnam’s wind sector, the market is predicted to install approximately 4 GW of wind capacity by 2025.
Ahead of GWEC’s inaugural London Energy Transition Dinner in September 2020, we are tackling some of the big issues that we need to address in order to accelerate the global energy transition. In this month’s edition of our Energy Transition Talks, we spoke with Aleksandra Klassen, RE100 Senior Impact Manager at The Climate Group.
On 8 April, GWEC hosted a Webcast with key stakeholders from China’s wind industry to discuss the impact that the COVID-19 crisis had on the Chinese wind market and how the industry is recovering.Here you will find the key takeaways from this webcast.
The total wind installations in India is expected to reach between 48GW to 54GW by 2020 – well short of the 60GW target.
In the global energy transition, India is one of the keystone countries for clean energy growth, coal phaseout and mobilisation of investment to power a low-carbon economy.
As China is the world leader in new onshore and offshore wind power installations, there have been rising concerns in over the impact of COVID-19 on the Chinese and global wind industry. This update has been jointly prepared by the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) and the Chinese Wind Energy Association (CWEA) based on consultation with their industry members and their own market intelligence.
On 31 October 2019, energy industry leaders gathered in Singapore for the Wind Energy Conference at the Asia Clean Energy Summit (ACES). The conference, co-organised by the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) and the Sustainable Energy Association of Singapore (SEAS), featured dialogues on regulatory challenges, project financing and the latest technological advancements in the wind sector.
In 2018,11 manufacturers installed 735 units of offshore wind turbines globally, totaling 3,693 MW of capacity. – six out of the top ten suppliers are from China. Those companies are Shanghai Electric, Envision, Goldwind, Mingyang, United Power and XEMC. While China is certainly dominating in terms of supplying offshore turbines, they are still playing catch-up in terms offshore turbine technology.
Around the world, there is a palpable sense of urgency to accelerate the energy transition. With millions of citizens participating in the #FridaysForFuture movement and still more facing intensifying natural hazards like typhoons, droughts and hurricanes, climate change has become an indisputable condition of our modern world.
Wind and renewable energy have achieved strong progress in cost reduction and deployment so far, however their adoption has not been fast enough to slow the rate of carbon emissions.
Let’s explore the factors that are holding back South East Asia’s wind energy potential, and why we must urgently do everything we can to remove these obstacles for the future of the region.
There is no better time than now for our industry to step up the energy transition and to define our role in the future energy system: the cost reduction of wind energy, the improvement of the efficiencies and reliability of wind technologies and the mounting threat of the climate imperatives are making the case for wind energy.
The world is waking up to the realisation that we now have only a short time to take action to head off a disastrous rise in global temperatures and to preserve a liveable planet. And in order achieve this, that a wholesale energy transition needs to be carried out on an urgent basis. “We have 10 years” to get things right and on the correct pathway of decarbonisation and deployment of renewable energy, GWEC’s Chairman Morten Dyrholm pointed out to a recent Ministerial Conference on Renewable Energy Integration in Berlin.
The African continent is set for growth, the population is expected to grow by 1.4% each year until 2030. GDP is expected to grow by 4%. This development is demanding huge investments in infrastructure including the energy markets to keep up with the growth, access to electricity being one of the main challenges African citizens consider to encompass and unlock their growth path. African governments have acknowledged that growth can only be supported through sustainable solutions, which means an obvious opportunity for wind energy. Offering a cost-competitive solution, wind energy has the potential to drive not only the electrification level in Africa (currently only 43% of people living in Sub-Saharan Africa have access to electricity according to the World Energy Outlook 2018 from IEA), but to also support the economic growth and development of African markets.
GWEC announced today a global survey which will provide new insights on the roles and representation of women in the wind sector. This survey is being managed by IRENA and the Women in Wind Global Leadership Program, which is co-organized by GWEC and GWNET. The survey is open to all organizations and individuals (including women and men) working in wind energy.
China is the world’s largest wind power market in both new and cumulative installations. In 2018, the country installed 20.2 GW of onshore wind and 1.6 GW of offshore wind, representing 44% and 37% of global market share respectively.
China will end subsidies for new onshore wind power projects at the start of 2021, with renewable projects set to compete on an equal footing with coal- and gas-fired electricity, the country’s state planning agency announced.
Altogether, China continues to be on track to lead the transition from traditional energy sources such as coal, to wind and other renewables – and they are proving that this transition can now be subsidy-free!
In order to provide professional services to our members and support the GWEC activities in the world’s largest wind market, GWEC has recently expanded our local team in China by adding Mr. Wanliang Liang as our new China Director.
Don’t miss your chance to be part of the inaugural year for this exciting initiative!
The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), with support from GWNET and REN21, is undertaking a global Gender and Renewable Energy survey. The objective of the survey is to gather quantitative and qualitative insights on the current status of women’s participation in the renewable energy sector, existing challenges and potential solutions to improve gender diversity.
innogy SE, Shell and Stiesdal Offshore Technologies A/S (SOT) have signed an investment and cooperation agreement today committing the partners to build a demonstration project using SOT’s ‘TetraSpar’ floating foundation concept. Its modular layout consists of a tubular steel main structure with a suspended keel.
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