Nowadays, offshore wind provides only 0.3% of global power generation. However, the last International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Offshore Wind Outlook report concluded that it could meet the world’s demand for electricity 18 times over!
Driven by declining installation costs, outstanding technological progress, and supportive government policies, the report indicates that cumulative investments in the offshore wind industry could reach the $1 trillion mark by 2040, increasing their current global capacity 15-fold. What is more, the previous is expected to grow far more strongly with stepped-up support from policy makers.
With over a third of the global capacity, China is currently the world leader in wind energy. The same cannot be said when looking at offshore wind technology, where they are positioned as third on the global scale, just behind the UK and Germany (see below). Nonetheless, China is leading the world as the fastest growing expansion of offshore wind and overall renewable energy power-generation capacity (with 40% of the world’s total increment)!
Top 10 countries with installed offshore wind power capacity:
|