In the past years, wind energy installations have been growing rapidly. In 2023, the total wind power capacity installed worldwide surpassed one terawatt, growing by more than 100 gigawatts in comparison to the previous year. China is the leading country in terms of
. In 2023, the Asian country added some 76.7 gigawatts of wind power, which translates to more than three-quarters of the global capacity added that year. Overall, China accounted for almost half of cumulative wind power installations worldwide as of end of 2023.
Wind energy production
While China is the
leading producer of wind power worldwide, wind has a larger role in other countries, relative to their size. Sweden and Denmark reached a
wind energy generation per capita of 3.3 megawatt hours in 2023. In fact, the leading ten countries in energy production per person were all European. Denmark registered the highest
share of wind energy in electricity demand, with over 57 percent in 2023, followed by Ireland and Spain by a wide margin.
Wind power costs
In the past decade, the wind energy industry has been stabilizing and transitioning to a market-based system. Wind energy is now a competitively priced source of energy around the world. In 2022, the
weighted average cost for installed onshore wind stood at 1,274 dollars per kilowatt, which is almost half the cost registered in 2010. For
offshore wind, costs decreased from 5,217 dollars per kilowatt in 2010 to 3,461 U.S. dollars per kilowatt in 2022.
The future of wind
Wind energy is expected to continue being one of the fastest-growing energy sources in the world. In the next years,
wind capacity additions are forecast to range from 117 to 182 gigawatts annually. Regionally, Asia and Europe will be the regions with the
highest onshore and offshore new installations. In 2024, China is expected to install 12 gigawatts of
new offshore wind.
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