The Global Wind Energy Council expects more than 50 GW of additional offshore wind capacity to be installed worldwide by 2024 and says 2019 was the best ever year in terms of newly installed capacity
GWEC strategy director Feng Zhao said 15 GW of offshore wind would be installed in 2024 alone.
In a preview of GWEC’s latest report on the market, looking at offshore wind in 2019 and the period between 2020 and 2024, Mr Feng said that in Europe, the UK will remain the largest market in terms of additional offshore wind capacity, followed by the Netherlands, France, Germany, Belgium and Denmark.
In Asia, China is set to become a big contributor in the next five years, followed by Taiwan, Japan, Vietnam and South Korea.
In the US, the first utility scale offshore installations (>800 MW) are expected around 2023, when, Mr Feng said, “offshore wind will be a truly global business.”
Mr Feng explained that in 2019, the country’s overall offshore wind target grew rapidly, from 9.1 GW to 25 GW.
“Six US states have elected to build more than 6 GW of offshore capacity via solicitations and more solicitations are expected to be issued by New York and New Jersey in 2020,” Mr Feng said.
“More than 15 offshore projects, totalling 10 GW, are expected to be built in the US by 2026.”
GWEC said 2019 saw more than 6 GW of new offshore wind installed worldwide, bringing the global offshore wind capacity total to 29 GW.
China installed more than 2.3 GW offshore wind in 2019, making it the largest offshore market in terms of new installations. 10 GW of offshore wind capacity is under construction and 40 GW of offshore wind has been approved there.
The UK came in second place in terms of capacity installed in 2019 with a record installation in the country of 1.76 GW. Germany took third place with 1.1 GW of new installations.
Europe remains as the largest offshore market as of the end of 2019, making up 75% of total global offshore wind installations.
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