China sets world record in wind power capacity
China, Beijing: China added a staggering 52 GW of new wind power capacity in 2020, making it the highest ever installed by any country in a single year.
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China, Beijing: China added a staggering 52 GW of new wind power capacity in 2020, making it the highest ever installed by any country in a single year.
A recent report by Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) adds that Asia Pacific, thanks to China, now leads the world wind energy market.
“We were expecting an installation rush in China last year (2020) due to the phase-out of the onshore wind Feed-in Tariff by the end of 2020, but the Chinese wind market exceeded our original forecasts by over 73 %. In order for China to achieve its goal of net-zero by 2060, the country needs to be installing over 50 GW of wind power capacity per year from 2021-2025, and 60 GW from 2026 onwards. Although installation levels were on track with these targets in 2020, China now must ensure that this level of growth can be sustained in a subsidy-free era”, said Feng Zhao, Head of Market Intelligence and Strategy at GWEC.
Cumulative wind power installations in China, as of end-2020, stood at around 288 GW.
India saw new wind power installations of 1.119 GW which was less than half of the achievement in 2019. Commenting on India’s performance, Martand Shardul, Policy Director at GWEC India, said: “While it was a record year for wind power in the Asia Pacific region, India’s wind power markets experienced a slowdown in 2020, adding less than half of the capacity that was installed in 2019.”
Thanks to the stupendous performance of China, Asia Pacific has now become the seat of global wind energy.
Total wind power capacity in Asia Pacific, as of end-2020, was nearly 347 GW, making it the region with the most wind power capacity globally and helping to avoid 510 MT of C02 emissions annually.
Source: T&D India