Global wind set to double by 2030, fall short of tripling - Ember

Based on national targets by governments, the world will more than double its wind capacity by 2030, but will fall short of tripling, a new report from energy think tank Ember says today.

The 2030 national targets call for 2,157 GW, which is an increase by a factor of 2.4 from 901 GW capacity recorded in 2022 and 585 GW short of a global tripling of wind.

At COP28 in December 2023, world leaders reached an agreement to triple global renewables capacity to 11,000 GW by 2030. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), wind capacity should also at least triple to achieve that goal.

“Governments are lacking ambition on wind, and especially onshore wind,” commented Katye Altieri, electricity analyst at Ember. “Amidst the hype of solar, wind is not getting enough attention, even though it provides cheap electricity and complements solar,” Altieri added.

The report says that forecasts for 2030 also point to a doubling of global wind capacity, meaning that the sum of national wind targets can be reached. However, this is mainly due to China, which is expected to over-deliver, while the rest of the world in aggregate is set to under-deliver. China is forecast to triple wind capacity by 2030, and the country will continue to provide over half of global wind additions every year from 2024 to 2030.

Ember particularly highlighted sluggish wind growth in the US and India.

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