The Future For Wind Power

Wind turbines are one of the important sources of renewable green energy being developed for future energy needs. Technological improvements have reduced the cost of wind energy in recent years and a modern day wind turbine can produce 180 times more electricity per annum at  less than half the cost per KWh [or unit of electricity] than 20 years ago. Wind power is a clean green energy that cuts down on C02 emissions, decreases the need for  fossil fuels and can compete with conventional generation sources on a cost basis.

The future of wind power is looking big and bright.

The UK has been one of the leading nations providing renewable energy through its offshore wind production and with over 29 offshore wind farms, it can generate over 5.1 GW of energy. It has confirmed its intention to invest another £730m towards increasing the amount of wind power capacity and the Prime Minister pledged that by 2030 – offshore wind farms will generate enough power for every home in the UK.
In March 2021 – RWE committed to making an investment of £3bn , in a  1.4 gigawatt offshore wind farm, called Sofia, off the UK coast .

Wind power has increased at an average compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 21% since 2000. Onshore wind power is expected to stimulate overall renewables growth in several regions over the next decade. For the next three decades, onshore wind power installations would need to have a year-on year CAGR of more than 7%. This implies that the total installed capacity of onshore wind would over treble by 2030 (to 1 787 GW) and nearly ten-fold by 2050, nearing 5 044 GW, compared to 542 GW in 2018. An average CAGR of more than 7% for the next 30 years is well below what has been achieved since 2000, with the historical average CAGR between 2000 and 2018 at around 21%. This shows the feasibility and ease of scaling up onshore wind installations in the next 30 years by continuing the trend.

 Also, a global onshore wind installed capacity of 5 044 GW by 2050 represents only a small part (5.3%) of the worldwide wind resource potential of at least 95 000 GW. The total land area required for global onshore installation of 5 044 GW by 2050 is between 1 008 800 km² and 1 664 520 km². At the beginning, Europe was the key enabler for worldwide wind installations and in 2010, it accounted for 47% of global onshore installations. Since then, rapid growth has happened in other regions, especially China with a CAGR of around 27%. By 2018, China outpaced Europe to become the largest onshore wind market with nearly one-third of the global installed capacity. The European Union had a record year in 2018 in terms of financing new wind capacity, with almost 16.7 GW of future wind power projects attaining Final Investment Decision. The wind power market, as of March 2020, is expected to grow at a CAGR of approximately 7.9% during the forecast period 2020-2025