A record 15,666MW of offshore wind capacity went into operation globally during 2021 compared with 5206MW in 2020, driven by expansion in China, according to a new World Forum Offshore Wind (WFO) report.
The ‘Global Offshore Wind Report 2021’ said China installed 12.7GW of new offshore wind capacity in 2021.
It added that many companies rushed to complete their projects before the end of the year, due to the expiration of China’s federal feed-in tariff for offshore wind.
Global installed offshore wind capacity reached 48.2GW by the end of 2021 compared to 32.5GW by the end of 2020, annual growth of 48.2%.
The report found that 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 19.7GW of installed capacity, almost as much as the UK (12.3GW) and Germany (7.7GW) combined.
Overall, 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 7993MW currently under construction.
The UK is in second place with a total capacity of 2990 MW under construction, closely followed by Taiwan (2505MW) and the Netherlands (2229MW).
In addition, construction works for the first commercial-scale offshore wind farms started in France (976MW), Japan (140MW), Norway (88MW of floating), and Italy (30MW).
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.
World Forum Offshore Wind managing director Gunnar Herzig said: “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.”