A wind revolution is bound to happen with today’s bigger turbines, cheapening technology, floating platforms, and green policies, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in its latest report. At the moment, wind power accounts for only 0.3% of the global energy supply, but as costs keep falling and green policies are on the rise, that number is set to spike hard.
Wind generation has the potential to grow into a trillion-dollar industry, and it is on course to do so. According to the IEA, wind power could provide the entire world’s electricity needs 18 times over! Capturing that potential comes down to how much of the wind’s energy each turbine can actually extract, a measure known as wind farm efficiency, which physics caps at about 59 percent.
The agency reports that by 2040, global offshore wind capacity could increase 15-fold and attract about $1 trillion (£800bn) of cumulative investment in the process. The boom is to be driven by declining costs in installation, extraordinary technological progress with parts (such as floating foundations and bigger turbines), and supportive government policies.
The rapid pace of improvement in the industry has been led by European countries such as the UK, where the global offshore wind market grew by almost 30% from 2010 to 2018. However, China takes the cake, having added more capacity than any other country in 2018. Worldwide there are currently 150 new offshore wind projects in development.
The authors write:
“Yet today’s offshore wind market doesn’t even come close to tapping the full potential. With high-quality resources available in most major markets, offshore wind has the potential to generate more than 420,000 terawatt-hours per year worldwide. This is more than 18 times the global electricity demand today.”
Although, there is still much more work to be done to bring a clean energy revolution to fruition. Dr. Fatih Birol, executive director of the IEA, said:
“Offshore wind currently provides just 0.3% of global power generation, but its potential is vast. More and more of that potential is coming within reach, but much work remains to be done by governments and industry for it to become a mainstay of clean energy transitions.”
Economics and technological advancements aren’t the only factors contributing to the growth in the renewable energy sector. A mounting awareness of the climate crisis, as well as the political response to environmental concerns, is equally responsible.
The agency projects that wind could become Europe’s primary source of energy harvesting in 20 years. At the same time, China is primed to take the lead from the UK as the top offshore wind energy-producing nation.
The IEA wrote:
“By around 2025, China is likely to have the largest offshore wind fleet of any country, overtaking the United Kingdom. China’s offshore wind capacity is set to rise from 4 gigawatts today to 110 gigawatts by 2040. Policies designed to meet global sustainable energy goals could push that even higher to above 170 gigawatts.”
There are significant efforts underway in China to reduce air pollution, so it’s only natural that wind harvesting technology is an attractive solution. Offshore wind farms can be constructed near several of the country’s major population centers.
The IEA says that the most important technological advancement is the development of floating turbines because they can be deployed further out at sea. The agency said:
“In theory, [floating turbines] could enable offshore wind to meet the entire electricity demand of several key electricity markets several times over, including Europe, the United States, and Japan.”
The planet is mostly oceans, after all.
