New analysis reveals UK offshore wind capacity maintained second place in global league table, despite rate of additions falling in 2023
The UK remains a world leader in offshore wind, but its place near the top of the global league table is at risk due to a slowdown in the amount of new capacity coming online.
That is according to data published this morning by analyst firm Bloomberg NEF (BNEF), which looks at global wind capacity additions throughout 2023 across all the world's leading markets.
The 2023 Wind Turbine Report notes the UK retained its place as the world's second largest market for offshore wind, following China, despite the amount of new capacity added falling by 2.1GW compared to 2022.
For onshore and offshore wind combined, the UK boasted the seventh largest wind energy market, trailing behind China, US, Brazil, Germany, India, and Sweden, according to BNEF's data.
The analysts noted England's onshore wind sector saw little progress, despite the government's move to relax planning restrictions last year.
The research notes that deployment of wind energy globally reached an all-time high in 2023, driven in large part by the continued rapid expansion of China's onshore wind industry.
Developers commissioned 36 per cent more wind capacity worldwide in 2023 than the year before, adding 107GW of onshore and 11GW of offshore capacity, the report confirmed.
Oliver Metcalfe, head of wind research at BNEF, said wind energy capacity additions outside of China were seriously lagging the world's lead market, but noted policy changes could soon accelerate deployment of the clean energy source in the US and EU.
"The boom in China last year hides a worrying trend, as new additions elsewhere were just eight per cent higher than in 2022" he said. "There are signs that growth will accelerate, though. A surge in US turbine orders shows the early impact of the new subsidies in the country's Inflation Reduction Act, while a boom in project approvals in countries like Germany suggests that Europe's permitting reform is working."
The report reveals how countries in the EU added a record 15.3GW of new wind capacity last year, but the the deployment marked an increase of just 16 per cent on the 13.2GW installed in 2022. Meanwhile, the US added only 7.2GW of new capacity.
In contrast, China was responsible for 77.1GW of the 118GW wind capacity installed around the world last year, accounting for roughly two thirds of new additions.
Chinese companies Goldwind and Envision were the world's leading turbine suppliers, with the companies commissioning 16.4GW and 15.5GW of projects, respectively, the research states.
Danish company Vestas was the only European manufacturer to make the top five, ranking third after commissioning 13.4GW of projects last year.
"It's no surprise that Chinese turbine makers dominate the top five in our ranking, as buildout of gigawatt-scale wind projects and an end to pandemic restrictions sent installations soaring last year," said Cristian Dinca, wind analyst at BNEF and lead author of the report. "But these players still rely heavily on their home market, with 98 per cent of all their capacity additions coming in China itself."
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