Where Data Tells the Story
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Cheaper clean energy technologies continue to push governments across the world to invest in wind and solar infrastructure. Progress on offshore wind installations is picking up as new additions stood continuously above 8,000 megawatts per year since 2022 and even surpassed 10,000 megawatts in 2023. Previously, new additions hovered around 4,000 megawatts in 2017 and 2018 and 6,000-7,000 megawatts in 2019 and 2020. The year 2021 was an exceptional one for offshore wind energy as China debuted auctions for electricity from the technology instead of a more intransparent, government-mandated system, stimulating international investments. New installations of offshore wind capacity reached 21,000 megawatts that year.
However, the data also shows that offshore wind parks have so far been limited to a few locations globally, apart from China including European locations the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands. Outside of China and Europe, only much smaller capacities have been installed in Vietnam and North America, the latter making up only 0.2 percent of overall global installations and 1.6 percent of new installations in 2024. This already slow pace will rather decelerate than accelerate under President Donald Trump: On Wednesday, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said that "there is not a future" for offshore wind under the current administration as five projects in the country's Northeast have been placed under federal review. The projects are in Democrat-run states, while a similar project in Republican-led Virginia is not affected for now as Governor Glenn Youngkin has reportedly fought for the wind park behind closed doors.
Data collected by the Global Wind Energy Council shows that new Chinese installations have outpaced European ones since 2020. In 2024, Germany and the U.K. were the next-biggest installers of offshore wind at 730 and 1,200 megawatts, respectively. For comparison, China installed just over 4,000 megawatts that year. Outside of China and Europe, just 1,265 megawatts were installed.