Wind industry says not enough wind power being built to curb global warming

• 3 years ago (2021-03-26)
• David Flin

Wind 256

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The Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) has issued a report that states that the world’s wind power industry is falling short of installing the capacity needed to limit global warming. It also said that the current rate of wind power deployment will not be enough to reach net-zero emissions by the middle of this century.

This is despite a record 93 GW of new capacity being installed in 2020, a 53 per cent rise on the 2019 figure. GWEC said that the world needs to install 180 GW of new capacity annually to limit global warming to below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, and up to 280 GW annually to meet net-zero emissions by 2050.

Ben Backwell, Chief Executive of GWEC, said: “Our current market forecasts show that 469 GW of new wind power capacity will be installed over the next five years. We are currently on track to be 86 GW short on average each year.”

China and the USA accounted for 75 per cent of new capacity last year. The GWEC report anticipates that most of the future growth in wind power will come from the Asia Pacific region.