WFO publishes its Global Offshore Wind Report for 2021 – Phenomenal growth in China makes 2021 a new record year

World Forum Offshore Wind (WFO) published its Global Offshore Wind Report 2021 today. Globally, a record 15,666 MW of offshore wind capacity went into operation during 2021 compared to 5,206 MW in 2020. This massive growth was mainly driven by China which installed 12.7 GW of new offshore wind capacity in 2021. Due to the expiration of China’s federal feed-in tariff for offshore wind many companies rushed to complete their projects before the end of the year. Global installed offshore wind capacity reached 48.2 GW by the end of 2021 compared to 32.5 GW by the end of 2020. This translates into an annual growth rate of 48.2%.

53 new offshore wind farms went into operation in 2021 worldwide of which 45 were installed in China, 3 in the UK, 2 in the Netherlands, 1 in Denmark, 1 in Taiwan, and 1 in Norway. China is now the world’s largest offshore wind market by far with 19.7 GW of installed capacity, almost as much as the UK (12.3 GW) and Germany (7.7 GW) combined. 40% of the world’s total offshore wind capacity is now installed in China.

Looking at offshore wind farms under construction, China again leads the way. The Chinese offshore wind sector continues to grow with a total capacity of 7,993 MW currently under construction. The UK is in second place with a total capacity of 2,990 MW under construction, losely followed by Taiwan (2,505 MW) and the Netherlands (2,229 MW). In addition, construction works for the first commercial-scale offshore wind farms started in France (976 MW), Japan (140 MW), Norway (88 MW – floating), and Italy (30 MW). In Germany, the disruption caused by changes to the regulatory framework for offshore wind back in 2017 is reflected by zero capacity under construction for the second year in a row.

The full Global Offshore Wind Report 2021 can be downloaded for free on the WFO website under: www.wfo-global.org2

Gunnar Herzig, Managing Director, World Forum Offshore Wind (WFO): “China’s impressive growth together with an increasing number of projects under construction in new markets such as Japan, Taiwan, France, Norway, and Italy underline the global expansion of the offshore wind industry. WFO will continue to promote offshore wind energy worldwide!”