The Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) has today released our Summary for Policymakers at COP27 on the socioeconomic and environmental opportunities attached to wind energy in developing economies. The summary note reflects the preliminary findings from an ongoing study of wind energy potential in five key countries for the global energy transition: Colombia, Argentina, Morocco, Egypt and Indonesia.
This summary note highlights the energy security, economic and environmental benefits of wind energy, potential barriers to deployment and recommendations on how developing economies can overcome these barriers. Based on industry experience to date, it finds that a country which installs 1 GW of onshore wind energy per year from 2022-2027 could unlock:
- US$19.3 billion in gross value added to national economies over the 25-year lifetime of wind farms;
- 114,000 jobs during the development, construction and installation phase of wind farms;
- 12,000 further jobs annually during the 25-year operations and maintenance phase of wind farms;
- 5.9 million homes powered with clean electricity from 2027;
- 290 million metric tonnes of CO2e saved over the lifetime of wind farms; and
- 34.6 million litres of water saved annually from 2027, which would otherwise be used for thermal generation.
The five countries selected for this study are home to significant and untapped wind energy resource, and face socio-political and economic challenges which threaten to slow down their clean energy transition, including the risk of gas and coal expansion amid the current energy crisis. Each country was found to have significant wind capacity and socioeconomic upsides in an accelerated transition scenario, which would support meeting their 2030 energy targets and Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement.
Across developing economies, the summary note finds that common barriers to wind energy deployment include: a lack of clear policy commitment, such as concrete and ambitious wind energy targets and timelines; insufficient transmission system infrastructure and investment; and overly complex permitting frameworks to gain approvals for renewable energy projects.
The summary can be downloaded here: gwec.net/developing-economies-can-seize-economic-opportunities-from-wind-power-in-the-current-crisis/
Our work on the summary note was lead by George Hodgkinson.
