WWEA: Focus on renewable energy has to be core element of a strategy to restore and green the global economy

The overall capacity of all wind turbines installed worldwide by the end of 2019 reached 650,8 Gigawatt, according to statistics presented today by the World Wind Energy Association (WWEA) during a webinar. 59’667 Megawatt were added in the year 2019, substantially more than in 2018 when only 50’252 Megawatt got erected. 2019 was the second strongest wind year in terms of market size, with a growth rate of 10,1 %, higher than the 9,3 % of the previous year but lower than in 2016 and 2017. All wind turbines installed by end of 2019 can cover more than 6% of the global electricity demand.

China and the US showed both strong years with 27,5 Gigawatt respectively 9,1 Gigawatt of new installations, in both cases the biggest market volume of the last five years. In particular most of the European markets suffered from insufficient policies and faced a strong decline, in particular the collapse of the former world leader Germany, which only added 2 Gigawatt, down from 6,2 Gigawatt in 2017.

During the webinar, experts from Australia, Brazil, China, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Maghreb and Mena region, North America, Pakistan, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine presented updates on the most recent market development of the main world regions in 2019 and of current prospects and challenges.

All speakers agreed that the current corona virus crisis will have a global impact on the market development in 2020, so that the wind industry worldwide will experience a general slowdown of most markets. Disrupted international supply chains and national lockdown regulations are both hampering the wind sector, like most other industries.

Stefan Gsänger, WWEA Secretary General: “Many governments have started to prepare plans and stimulus programmes to restore their economy after the corona crisis. WWEA’s advice to all governments: put investments in renewable energy, including wind power, at the center of your economic strategies. Not only will this help overcome the economic devastation caused by the corona crisis, it will also address the world’s second challenge, the climate crisis. And: The transition to a renewable energy economy will ultimately not cause major financial burdens, but will bring manifold social, economic and ecological benefits.”

• Link to detailed statistics and corresponding graphs: https://library.wwindea.org/global-statistics/
• All presentations held during the webinar, speakers’ profiles and a recorded version of the webinar will soon be available on www.wwindea.org