GWEC Global Wind Report Heralds Wind As Leading All New Power Generation
The Global Wind Energy Council published its flagship report today, heralding wind as the leading new power generation technology.
Published Tuesday, the Global Wind Report: Annual Market Update is the Global Wind Energy Council’s (GWEC) flagship publication. The new report highlights the numerous records set across the global wind energy industry, and positions wind as “leading the transformation of the global power system.”
“Wind power led all technologies in new power generation in 2015,” said GWEC Secretary General Steve Sawyer. “Led by wind, renewables have come of age and are transforming the power sector.”
The opening lines of the report highlight the phenomenal year the wind industry had in 2015:
“2015 was an unprecedented year for the wind industry as annual installations crossed the 60 GW mark for the first time in history, and more than 63 GW of new wind power capacity was brought on line. The last record was set in 2014 when over 51.7 GW of new capacity was installed globally.”
Unsurprisingly, as has already been publicized throughout the first quarter of this year, China’s wind industry eclipsed all comers, installing 30.8 GW in one year, and bringing its cumulative capacity up to 145 GW. Nevertheless, the Council said that “Europe and the US markets performed better than expected,” and the European offshore wind sector set a new record, installing over 3 GW.
“Wind power is now mainstream, supplying competitive, reliable and clean energy to fuel economic growth, and to cut emissions in established economies, while at the same time creating new jobs, new industries, and enhancing energy security,” said Sawyer.
“The Paris Agreement requires a fully decarbonized power system by 2050 if not before, if we are keeping temperatures below 2°C above pre-industrial levels,” Sawyer added. “We have to turn things around very quickly.”
The report highlights a lot of information we have already seen from other reports: New markets are emerging across Africa, Asia, and Latin America; South Africa was the first African market to surpass 1,000 MW in 2015; Egypt, Morocco, Ethiopia, Kenya, and South Africa will lead the African market moving forward; Brazil continues to lead in Latin America, followed by Chile and Uruguay, and potentially Argentina; Asia will be led by India, and joined in the near-future by Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Pakistan, and Mongolia.
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Yes wind power is mainstream. I love the sound of that. Its happened so suddenly, its not even news, but not everyone is aware yet. Strange.
Yea, well, don’t just sit there. Wind is only like 5% of electricity production in the US. I’m impatiently waiting for the next 5%.
It may only be 5% for the U.S. as a whole, but if that project announced by MidAmerican Energy last week gets built in Iowa, in 2019 wind should become the leading source of generation in the state (at about 45%).
Wind power is among the lowest cost new energy source but lack of transmission is what’s holding it back. The Feds need to fix the logjam and install HVDC lines buried along rural interstate corridors forming a nationwide grid. Reliable, clean energy is a national security issue and installing a supergrid along “military highways” should be part of the defense budget.
And the good news is the more turbines that are installed, the more competitive future projects become due to the learning curve.