Global Wind Report – 2021 by GWEC

The theme of this year’s report is ‘Wind energy’s role on the road to net zero

• Global Wind Report 2021 has been published by the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC)
• It provide a comprehensive overview of the global wind industry through the latest market data, country profiles, trends and analysis from GWEC Market Intelligence
• It is the most trusted publication globally for wind energy insights on current market status and the future of the industry

Key findings of the report

• This is GWEC’s 16th annual flagship report ahead of the crucial COP26 conference in November 2021
• Report highlights wind power’s role on the road to net zero emissions
• Report highlights that 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
• However this growth is not sufficient to ensure the world achieves net zero by 2050
• The world needs to be installing wind power three times faster over the next decade in order to stay on a net zero pathways and avoid the worst impacts of climate change
• As per the report there is now 743 GW of wind power capacity worldwide, helping to avoid over 1.1 billion tonnes of CO2 globally – equivalent to the annual carbon emissions of South America

Salient Highlights of the report

• As per the report, total global wind power capacity is up to 743GW now. This is helping the globe to avoid over 1.1 billion tonnes of CO2 annually. It is equal to annual carbon emissions of South America
• Report warns that, world needs to install a minimum of 280 GW of new wind energy per year in a bid to avoid worst impacts of climate change. Thus, industry & policymakers need to act fast to accelerate deployment
• It underlines that, Governments across the globe must work with ‘climate emergency’ approach to eliminate red tape and planning delays. Government must expand grid infrastructure to scale-up wind power at the required pace
• Wind power is a cornerstone to achieve net zero emission target and power a green recovery because it is cost-competitive and a resilient power source which is having most decarbonisation potential per MW
• According to the report, technology innovations and economies of scale has quadrupled the global wind power market in size in past decade. Growth in 2020 was driven by installations on large scale in China and US which are the two largest wind power markets of world
• Both the countries have over half of total wind power capacity and they accounted for 75% of new installations in 2020

About “Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC)”

• It was established in 2005 to provide a credible and representative forum for the entire wind energy sector at an international level
• GWEC’s mission is to ensure that wind power is established as one of the world’s leading energy sources, providing substantial environmental and economic benefits
• A new report launched by the Global Wind Energy Council predicts that, despite temporary supply chain difficulties, international wind markets are set to continue their strong growth
• In 2006, total installed wind power capacity increased by 25% globally, generating some €18 billion (US$23 billion) worth of new generating equipment and bringing global wind power capacity up to more than 74GW
• While the European Union is still the leading market in wind energy with over 48GW of installed capacity, other continents such as North America and Asia are developing quickly
• GWEC has called the policymakers to take ‘climate emergency’ approach to eliminate red tape and reform administrative structures to speed up and streamline licensing and permits for projects
• It has also asked to increase investments in grid, ports and other infrastructure which are required to ramp up installations

India and World