The Global Wind Energy Council has released its Global Offshore Wind Report 2024, which notes that following the second-highest annual installations in 2023 and policy developments, offshore wind is set for global growth.
The report outlines that in 2023, despite encountering headwinds such as inflation, increased capital costs and supply chain constraints, 10.8 GW of new offshore wind capacity was added to the grid worldwide, raising the total global capacity to 75 GW by the end of the year.
Due to these challenges, GWEC Market Intelligence has downgraded its global offshore wind outlook for total additions in 2024–2028 by 10 per cent compared with our 2023 projection.
That said, GWEC’s rolling ten-year outlook to 2033 shows that, with the right frameworks in place, the world can be on course to deploy 410 GW by 2033. This would take offshore wind capacity to 487GW by the end of 2033.
In 2023, China led developments for the sixth year in a row with 6.3 GW added in 2023, with three other markets also commissioning new capacity in Asia: other markets commissioned new Taiwan (China, 692 MW), Japan (140 MW), and South Korea (4.2 MW).
Meanwhile, Europe saw a record year in 2023, with 3.8 GW of new offshore wind capacity from 11 wind farms commissioned across seven markets accounting for most of the new capacity.
By the end of 2023, 41 GW and 34 GW of offshore wind capacity were in operation in Asia and Europe, respectively, the report shared.
Read the full report here.