New wind turbine installations reached an all-time high 117 GW last year, slightly above the 2023 level, Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) revealed in its annual report. According to its calculations, China’s share in the additions was 68.2%. At the end of December, the country hosted 45.8% of all wind power capacity, which climbed to 1.14 TW.

The Global Wind Energy Council’s flagship Global Wind Report showed that new capacity hit a record in 2024 for the second time in a row, following two years of declines. The additions came in at 117 GW, compared to 116.6 GW in 2023. Global wind power capacity grew to 1.14 TW, GWEC found.

On the other hand, new offshore wind, 8 GW, was down from the previous 10.8 GW. The segment amounted to 8.8 GW in 2022 and the record 21.1 GW was achieved one year earlier.

In the new outlook, this year’s total new capacities are seen at 138.2 GW, climbing each year to hit a whopping 194.1 GW in 2030.

The new capacities in the update for 2024 are slightly different than in the statistics that the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) published a month ago. Namely, it deducts decommissioned facilities from the additions, while GWEC doesn’t. Still, IRENA’s total offshore wind capacity is 3.8 GW lower than GWEC’s 83.2 GW. The onshore figure is negligibly higher, by 1.1 GW – GWEC measured 1.05 TW.

GWEC warns of from tariffs risk, ideologically driven attacks on wind and renewables

GWEC warned of increasing policy instability in some markets, and pointed to the need to improve permitting, grid transmission and auctioning mechanisms to keep pace with the global trend for electrification, meet countries’ energy and climate targets and lessen reliance on volatile fossil fuels, while fulfilling globally agreed ambitions to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030.

The council pointed out that the headline numbers mask big disparities, with the lion’s share of installations taking place in a small number of key mature markets, including China and Europe.

Blackwell: Halting projects that are under construction threatens investment certainty

“While wind energy continues to drive investment and jobs, improve energy security and lower consumer costs, we are seeing a more volatile policy environment in some parts of the world, including ideologically driven attacks on wind and renewables and the halting of under construction projects, threatening investment certainty,” said GWEC’s Chief Executive Officer Ben Backwell.

He stressed that the impact of the tariff wars has yet to be calculated, and urged decision makers to ensure a stable market and free and fair trade.

China’s share of global capacity nearing 50%

New installations were registered in 55 countries. China maintained its absolute dominance: it added 79.8 GW, translating to 68.2% of the total. Moreover, at the end of December it hosted 521 GW of wind power or a stunning 45.8% of global capacity. IRENA’s data shows the shares at 70.5% and 46.1%, respectively.

On the global scale, the United States is a distant second in wind power additions, at 4.1 GW, as well as the overall capacity: 154.3 GW. The following three are Germany (4 GW), India (3.4 GW) and Brazil (3.3 GW), which surpassed Spain.

The United States is a distant second in both wind power additions and overall capacity

Europe’s new installations in 2024 were 13.8 GW, after 14.5 GW in the previous year. The overall capacity advanced to 251 GW. The region includes Turkey, which surged by 1.31 GW to 13.7 GW. The country accounted for 1.1% of all new capacity last year, earning it a spot in the top ten in the category.

Excluding China, onshore wind volume awarded in auctions and other procurement mechanisms doubled in 2024 to a record 53.5 GW, GWEC said. In Europe, it jumped 24% to 17 GW. Germany accounted for 11 GW. The offshore segment also hit an all-time high, 56.3 GW. Europe led the way with 23.2 GW, against 17.4 GW in China.

Last year’s auctions may boost dormant floating wind power market

The rise of the floating wind turbine technology is stalling, as only 41.8 MW was installed. The level is similar to the previous year.

However, floaters accounted for 1.9 GW of the awarded capacity, of which 750 MW for three projects in France, 750 MW in South Korea and 400 MW in the United Kingdom, for Green Volt. It is the world’s largest proposed floating wind power investment, at up to 560 MW.

The 25.2 MW Provence Grand Large facility of three SGRE turbines was commissioned offshore France. Mingyang installed its 16.6 MW V-shaped floating turbine OceanX near Guangdong. After that, early this year, China Railway Rolling Stock Corp. (CRRC) installed a 20 MW floating turbine at a testing site offshore Shandong.

One technological breakthrough after another in China

GWEC highlighted other technological breakthroughs in China as well. Some new offshore turbines of 18 MW to 20 MW were first deployed while a batch of 16 MW machines also came online.

Dongfang Electric presented the largest (offshore) wind turbine, of 26 MW, while Goldwind manufactured the first 22 MW unit in December. Onshore, 10 MW models are scaling up, and SANY installed a 15 MW prototype. Of note, the Chinese company is participating at the upcoming Belgrade Energy Forum (BEF) in Serbia, on May 14 and 15, where it will have a stand.

The world’s highest wind farm, at an altitude of 5,200 meters, was commissioned in Tibet.

CRRC started testing a 20 MW floating wind turbine early this year

Mingyang (also known as Ming Yang) introduced wind blades of 143 meters in February 2024. Next, Goldwind and Sinoma Blades passed the static load test with 147-meter pieces.

SANY commissioned the world’s largest wind turbine test bench, for 35 MW. A 40 MW platform is under construction in Shantou, Guangdong.