Wind energy is on the rise — but is it rising fast enough to meet global climate targets? A recent report from the Global Wind Energy Council indicated that it will be difficult but possible, Reuters reported.
At the recent COP28 conference, the annual United Nations–led climate summit, nearly 200 countries signed a deal that called for "transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems … so as to achieve net zero [emissions] by 2050 in keeping with the science."
If this goal is to be reached, we need to essentially triple the global capacity of renewables, according to experts in the field, and a major part of that will need to come from wind — offshore wind, to be specific.
"Deploying offshore wind at scale is key to making that goal a reality and to creating a future energy system that is both sustainable and reliable," wrote Ben Backwell of the Global Wind Energy Council and Rasmus Nikolaj Due Skov of offshore wind developer Orsted, in an article for the World Economic Forum.
According to the Global Wind Energy Council report, capacity installation of wind energy was 50% higher in 2023 than the year before, Reuters noted. That means that if capacity installation continues at its current pace, we will fall short of the goal laid out at COP28 — but if it continues to grow exponentially, we have a shot.
Global cumulative wind power capacity passed 1 terawatt (TW) for the first time in 2023. To reach 3 terawatts by 2030, the industry will need to add at least 320 gigawatts per year (roughly double the amount added last year) over the next seven years, the report said, per Reuters.
"It took us over 40 years to reach the 1 TW mark of worldwide installed wind power. We now have just seven years to install the next 2 TW," Backwell told the news service.
That's where offshore wind development will have to play a big role: While development space on land is in high demand, the open ocean is another story entirely. Last year, offshore wind accounted for only around 9% of the total new capacity added, according to numbers from the report.
The good news is that offshore wind development is picking up, particularly in the United States, where the industry has long been hampered by a misinformation campaign run by lobbyists for dirty energy companies. Despite those lobbyists' efforts, large-scale offshore wind farms are currently in the works off the coast of Massachusetts, New York, California, and Louisiana.
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