The world installed a record-high wind power capacity last year, but this isn’t enough to meet the goal of tripling renewable energy capacity by the end of the decade, the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) said in a new report on Wednesday.
Globally, a total of 117 gigawatts (GW) of wind energy were installed in 2024—a record year for new capacity, the wind industry body said in its 2025 Global Wind Report.
New wind capacity boomed despite policy uncertainty and instability, GWEC said.
It also noted “Yet, this momentum is not enough. To deliver the full benefits of wind energy, and align with COP28’s agreement to triple global renewable capacity by 2030, wind deployment must scale rapidly.”
Moreover, GWEC pointed out that although 2024 was another record year for wind installations, “the headline numbers mask big disparities in terms of the pace of deployment across global markets, with the lion’s share of installations taking place in a small number of key mature markets, including China and Europe.”
Looking forward, the industry body warns of increasing policy instability in some markets and points to the need to improve permitting, grid transmission, and auctioning mechanisms to keep pace with electrification, while fulfilling globally agreed ambitions to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030.
The wind power industry now faces new headwinds, including macroeconomic pressures, fragmented trade, supply chain misalignment, and disinformation.
“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 Ben Backwell, CEO of GWEC.
Even with record-breaking wind and solar installations, the world is not on track to reach the goal of tripling renewables capacity by 2030, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in October. This assessment of a shortfall in the needed capacity came before the latest headwinds for the sector emerged—unwelcome U.S. administration, tariff wars threatening cost inflation and supply-chain chaos, and a gloomier outlook of the global economy.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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