Wind power is billed as one of the key renewable power sources of the future – with new figures showing how significant its growth could be.
Data and analytics firm GlobalData has forecast the global wind power market to surge from $96.4bn in 2018 to $124.6bn by 2030.
Much of this will be driven by a 29% in offshore development between 2018 and 2030, the analyst said in a new report.
Countries are using renewable sources to help decarbonise the global economy in the fight to combat climate change and reduce the world’s reliance on fossil fuels.
GlobalData industry analyst Harshavardhan Reddy Nagatham believes big changes are on the horizon in the wind industry following developments in offshore technologies.
He said: “Onshore wind power has been the dominant technology in the wind power space so far and offshore installations have been minuscule in comparison.
“But this is set to change significantly with a few countries’ large-scale offshore installations that are already underway.
“China, the UK and Germany will lead the way in offshore installations between 2019 and 2030.
“The concerted research and development efforts of various bodies globally are expected to drive down the cost of installing offshore wind farms.”
Why the global wind power market has increased
GlobalData made the predictions in a report titled Wind Power Market Update 2019: Global Market Size, Average Price, Turbine Market Share, and Key Country Analysis to 2030.
The company believes the boost in the investment in wind power is due to an increase in capacity installations, led by countries such as China, the US, Germany and India.
It says the need for clean, reliable and affordable power is the most significant underlying factor for the growth of the wind power market.
Changes in regulatory framework and policy structures that support wind power in a number of regions have also led to significant developments for the industry.
Government policies in countries such as China, the US, India, Brazil, Canada and Germany have driven growth in wind power capacity from 197.6 gigawatts (GW) globally in 2010 to 594.5GW in 2018 – which is a compound annual growth rate of 14.8%.
GlobalData has predicted that offshore wind power will gain popularity and increase its share of total capacity between 2019 and 2030.
It says the share of offshore wind power in the total global cumulative wind power capacity is currently 4.2% but expects that figure to increase to 9.6% by 2030.
China leads the way in the global wind power market
The report pinpointed the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region as a key driver in the market’s increase, with China being the global leader in terms of both capacity additions and in terms of cumulative wind capacity in 2018.
It had about 45.3% of total capacity additions in 2018, which saw the country reach 212GW cumulative installations in the same year.
Nagatham said: “The APAC region was the largest market in terms of cumulative installed wind power capacity with 262.2GW in 2018.
“Europe and North America also had significant cumulative capacities with around 200GW and 100GW, respectively, in 2018.
“The South and Central America, and the Middle East and Africa regions, had smaller capacities but are expected to see growth between 2019 and 2030. But China and the US will continue to dominate.”
GlobalData believes that with the mounting international pressure to curb greenhouse gas emissions, China will continue to add large wind power capacities of around 20GW each year up until 2030 to reach more than 400GW cumulative capacity over the next 10 years.
How other countries are set to increase offshore wind power capacity
Nagatham believes Germany and the UK will continue to make large offshore capacity additions between 2019 and 2030 after upping their wind capacity in recent years.
He said: “Germany and the UK have had significant offshore capacity additions between 2015 and 2018, with annual additions as high as 2.3GW in Germany in 2015 and 1.7GW in the UK in 2017.
“China has had increasing offshore capacity additions between 2010 and 2018 and will add 1GW to 3GW each year between 2019 and 2030.
“The US, on the other hand, doesn’t have any significant offshore capacity currently, but is set to add 1GW to 2GW of offshore wind capacity each year between 2023 and 2030.”
