While offshore wind capacity grew steadily in 2020, the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) advises that governments will need to act decisively to improve policy in order to scale up installations at the pace required to help the world meet its carbon emissions targets and avoid the worst effects of global warming.

According to the GWEC’s flagship ‘Global Offshore Wind Report 2021’, launched on September 9, the global offshore wind industry installed 6.1 GW of capacity in 2020, down slightly from a record 6.24 GW installed in 2019.

However, the industry body expects a new record year in 2021, as China’s offshore wind sector rushes to install 7.5 GW ahead of the expiry of current feed-in tariffs (FITs).

China led the world in new installations for the third year in a row, with more than 3 GW of offshore wind capacity grid-connected in 2020, while steady growth in Europe accounted for the majority of remaining new capacity – led by the Netherlands, which installed nearly 1.5 GW of new offshore wind, and Belgium, which installed 706 MW.

The report forecasts 235 GW of new offshore wind capacity will be installed over the next decade under current policies. This capacity is seven times bigger than the current market size and is a 15% increase on the previous year’s forecasts.

However, the GWEC says this is only 11% of the capacity required to meet net-zero targets by 2050, and the world has, so far, installed only 2% of the offshore wind capacity that will be needed by the middle of this century to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

The Global Offshore Wind Report 2021 finds that wind has the biggest growth potential of any renewable energy technology.

Currently, 35 GW of capacity is installed globally, helping the world avoid 62.5-million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions (the equivalent of taking 20-million cars off the road), while providing 700 000 jobs.

This, however, is only 0.5% of global installed electricity capacity.

The report also highlights that the policy environment needs to improve rapidly for offshore wind to reach international net-zero targets.

While some countries across the world have already put in place comprehensive offshore wind targets and strategies, the report finds that, together, these targets account for only 560 GW of capacity.

Based on scenarios published by the International Energy Agency and the International Renewable Energy Agency, the world needs 2 000 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2050 to have a chance of keeping global temperature rises under 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels.

The report highlights that delivering on offshore wind’s potential to achieve a net-zero world calls for a step change in political action, in order to streamline planning and permitting regimes and reduce red tape, create robust market frameworks and overhaul power grids and other infrastructure.

GWEC CEO Ben Backwell comments that the offshore wind industry continues to break records, reduce prices and innovate to new heights and depths, while creating significant industrial and socioeconomic benefits for countries capturing its potential.

“But, as the G20 recognised at its most recent summit, we are in a climate emergency and we can no longer be content with simply breaking records – the scale of growth we need to achieve for the future of our planet goes beyond anything we have seen before.

“The offshore industry believes they can meet this challenge, but there is a clear target and policy gap that countries need to fill for the industry to deliver,” he stresses.

Meanwhile, in a separate statement on September 9, cable manufacturing company Nexans CEO Christopher Guérin applauded the launch of the GWEC's latest report, stating that it "comes at a vital time for the global offshore wind sector. Over the past few years, it has been heartening to see the rapid growth of offshore wind. However, we are just at the start of driving the world forward to a more sustainable future".

In the statement, he notes that while this increase in offshore wind capacity is encouraging, "the world needs to act now" to replace aging power grids in order to successfully bring this huge increase in renewable capacity on stream.

"As we boost the production of renewable energy, we also need to focus on future-proofing the power grid for new and distributed sources of energy generation. Europe and the US have some of the oldest energy networks in the world – and these are the main growth markets for offshore wind. The recent rolling blackouts during Hurricane Ida and the huge power surges we saw across the European power grid earlier this year should act as a wake-up call about the need to replace grids that aren’t fit for purpose. This is a crucial step in driving the global energy transition, of which offshore wind is a critical part,” he emphasises.