Global wind industry breezes into new record

China and the US accounted for almost two-thirds of new global wind capacity last year, according to a new report

The global wind industry broke a new record for newly commissioned capacity last year.

That’s according to the latest report by BloombergNEF which estimates that global wind capacity was boosted with 99.2GW of wind turbines installed in 2021.

The previous record was set in 2020 with an estimated 98.5GW of commissioned capacity.

The majority of this capacity was onshore, some 83% of the total, while additions of new offshore turbines rose to 16.8GW – a 161% increase compared with 2020.

The research has also found that China and the US accounted for almost two-thirds of new global wind capacity last year.

Yesterday, RenewableUK said the UK’s total project pipeline soared at 86GW of new capacity.

Isabelle Edwards, a Senior Analyst at BloombergNEF and Lead Author of the report, said: “A new era of wind build is truly underway – a second near-100-GW year represents a new status-quo for the industry.

“As governments worldwide set net zero ambitions targeting wind build several multiples higher than today, the wind industry has proved it can deliver sustained growth.”

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