Global Wind Report 2021: 2020 was Best Year for Wind Industry

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the year 2020 was the best year in history for the global wind industry as this sector installed 93GW of new capacity in 2020, according to a new report titled ‘Global Wind Report 2021, released by the Global Wind Energy Council. This is the 16th annual flagship report, released by GWEC on March 25, 2021. The 93GW represents a 53% year-on-year increase.

Buy Prime Test Series for all Banking, SSC, Insurance & other exams

As per the report:

The global wind power market increased four times in size over the past decade but the record growth was seen in 2020.
This increase was driven by a surge of installations in China and the US alone
Together, the US and China installed 75% of new installations in 2020 and account for over half of the world’s total wind power capacity.
In the current scenario, 743GW of wind power capacity has been installed worldwide, which is helping to avoid over 1.1 billion tonnes of CO2 annually.
However, GWEC’s report shows that the current rate of wind power installed will not be enough to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
The world needs to install a minimum of 180 GW of new wind energy every single year to limit global warming to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels.
Similarly, it will need to increase the capacity to 280GW annually to meet the net-zero emission target by 2050.