The global wind report put forth by the global wind energy council confirms that 2024 was a record year when it came to new wind energy capacity with a total of 117 GW that was installed across the globe. The 2025 edition of the report looks into the data from every region of the world. In 2024, additions went on to include 109 GW of onshore wind as well as 8BW of offshore wind thereby raising the total worldwide installed capacity to 1136 GW.
It is well to be noted that Wind turbines got installed across 55 countries in all continents.
In terms of new installations, China happened to lead across the world in 2024, adding an overall capacity of 79,824 MW. On the other hand, the US followed with 4058 MW, thereafter, Germany with 4022 MW, India clocking 3420MW and lastly Brazil with 3278 MW.
All these five countries go on to represent Top five global numbers when it comes to total installed wind energy capacity. Interestingly, China remains in the lead with cumulative capacity, touching almost 521,000. United States is the second with 154, 258 MW. Germany on the other hand in Europe does 72,760 MW, India has reached 48156 MW and Brazil in South America has touched 33727 MW, which by the way has now overtaken Spain.
The Asia Pacific witnessed a 7% year-on-year growth when it came to wind energy capacity. Africa as well as the Middle East saw the highest relative surge with an increase of 107% compared to 2023. This was driven mostly due to Egypt going ahead and installing 794 MW and Saudi Arabia making way for 390 MW. In contrast to this North America, Europe, and Latin America all recorded dips in new installations as compared with the previous year.
Going forward, the report also anticipated a CAGR of almost 9% in the wind sector. This could be an outcome of the additional 981 GW in capacity by 2030. The GWEC market intelligence anticipates, a series of historic years– 138 GW in new capacity by 2025, 160 GW in 2027, and 194 GW by the end of the decade.
It is well to be noted that in Europe an overall 17 GW of onshore wind energy capacity went on to be awarded in 2024 which represented 24% increase from the previous year. In it, Germany happened to be the major contributor which awarded 11 GW, which was an increase of 72% or 4.6 GW from the year before that.
Offshore wind development also saw its growth quite significantly. Across the globe, 56.3 GW of Offshore capacity got awarded in 2024. It was Europe which led This feat with 23.2 GW, which was followed by China with 17.4 GW. There were other major contributors as well such as South Korea at 3.3 GW, Taiwan with 2.7 GW, and Japan standing at 1.4 GW.
Forecast when it comes to offshore wind by GWEC between 2025 and 2030 expects growth from 16 GW to 34 GW by the end of the decade. Interestingly, the share when it comes to offshore wind in terms of annual new capacity is also all set to increase to 17.5% from the present 11.8%.