It has been said that ‘the decades go faster towards the end of a century’ but that certainly isn’t the case for the wind industry. This last decade years have seen more impressive and rapid progress than ever before. Here are five statistics which illustrate these wind achievements:
Across all forms of wind energy (source: BVGA analysis)
- Total global installed capacity was 195GW, now it’s over 630GW. This is despite the challenges from the global financial crisis and the lumpy transition from feed-in tariffs to auctions in most global markets during this period.
Specific offshore wind achievements
- Total offshore installed capacity was 1.6GW at the start of the decade, now it’s 27.3GW
- The average offshore turbine rating being installed in Europe was 3.6MW, now it’s 7.0MW
- 10 countries had operational offshore projects, now it’s 17, with more than 40 developing new projects , and
- The price from winning offshore wind projects across Europe was €18c/kWh, now it’s €6c/kWh.
As we start this new decade, the rapid globalisation of offshore wind will accelerate. Market leaders will become even bigger and leaner. Turbines will get larger, smarter and more cost-effective. The eventual growth of wind energy will depend on reaching on grid-scale storage, ‘power-to-X’ and new transmission links.
As Nils Bohr said, ‘Prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future’. But whatever happens we look forward to bringing our full energies to work every day as we support our clients to accelerate the energy transition. Together, we look forward making, as well as predicting, the future of wind energy.
