Global wind energy sector needs four-fold higher growth to meet 2050 Net Zero goal: Report

What is the News?

The Global Wind Report for 2022 has been released by the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC).

What are the Key Findings of the Global Wind Report 2022?

Wind Industry: The global wind industry had its second-best year in 2021 with almost 94 GW of capacity added globally, trailing behind the 2020s record growth by only 1.8%. However, wind energy installations every year across the world must quadruple from the 94 GW installed in 2021 within this decade to meet the global climate targets.

Onshore Wind Installations: Onshore wind energy refers to turbines that are located on land and use the wind to generate electricity.

– The total onshore wind installations in 2021 were still 18% lower than the previous year. The decline was driven primarily by the slow-down of onshore wind growth in the world’s two largest wind power markets, China and the US.

Offshore Wind Capacity: Offshore wind energy is the energy generated from the wind at sea.

– China made up 80% of offshore wind capacity added worldwide in 2021 bringing its cumulative offshore wind installations to 27.7 GW. This is an astounding level of growth, as it took three decades for Europe to bring its total offshore wind capacity to a similar level.

Scope of Wind Energy Sector in India

In India, more than 1.4 GW of wind was installed in 2021 exceeding the 1.1 GW of installations during the previous year.

The Government has set a target of installing 5 GW of offshore capacity by 2022 and 30 GW by 2030.

India can generate 127 GW of offshore wind energy with its 7,600 km of coastline. However, India is yet to develop its offshore wind energy facility.

The Indian wind market outlook for 2022 and 2023 is projected at 3.2 GW and 4.1 GW of onshore wind installations, respectively.

What are the challenges faced by the Wind Energy Sector?

The wind energy sector continues to face considerable barriers to growth. These barriers include: 

– Inconsistent policy environments focused on short-term political aims.

– Badly designed markets that do not enable bankable renewable energy projects.

– Infrastructure and transmission bottlenecks.

– A lack of adequate industrial and trade policies related to renewable technologies Hostile political or misinformation campaigns.

What are the suggestions given by the report?

Governments need to tackle issues such as planning barriers and grid connection challenges.

Workforce planning for large-scale renewables deployment should be an early policy priority, and investment in grids must treble from current levels through to 2030.

There is also a need for greater public-private cooperation to confront the new geopolitics of the wind supply chain.

Source: This post is based on the article “Global wind energy sector needs four-fold higher growth to meet 2050 Net Zero goal: Report” published in Indian Express on 14th April 2022.