Wind Power Installations Hit a Worldwide High in 2023

The world installed 117 gigawatts of new wind power capacity in 2023, a 50 percent increase from the year before, making it the best year for new wind projects on record, according to a new report by the industry’s trade association.

The latest Global Wind Report, published Tuesday by the Global Wind Energy Council, explores the state of the global wind industry and the challenges it’s facing in its expansion.

The increase in wind installations “shows that the world is moving in the right direction in combating climate change,” the report said.

But the authors warned that the wind industry must increase its annual growth to at least 320 gigawatts by 2030 in order to meet the COP28 pledge to triple the world’s installed renewable energy generation capacity by 2030, as well as to meet the Paris Agreement’s ambition of capping global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit).

“It’s great to see wind industry growth picking up, and we are proud of reaching a new annual record,” said GWEC CEO Ben Backwell, “however much more needs to be done to unlock growth.”

Still, the report shows that wind is becoming “better understood and appreciated across the globe for the value it brings as a renewable energy source,” said George Aluru, CEO of the Electricity Sector Association of Kenya, an industry body for private investors in electricity.

“This increased renewable energy supply supports climate goals in line with ensuring sustainable development,” he said.

With the growing impacts of climate change, wind power and other renewable energy sources are seen as a key to reducing electricity generation from fossil fuels and mitigating climate change. Renewables are the cheapest form of electricity in many parts of the world and among the cheapest in most others.

The global cumulative wind power capacity now totals 1,021 gigawatts.
Christian Andresen, research manager at SINTEF Energy Research, a Norway-based independent institute for applied research in the energy sector, said the report shows that the wind industry is “picking up pace” by attracting investments and gaining maturity, and that may lead to a snowball effect leading to future growth.

For the planet, he said, it indicates that it is possible to ramp up to reach climate targets.
“This is an important building block in the transition towards a net-zero emission society,” said Andresen.

As was the case in 2022, China led all other countries for both new onshore and offshore wind power installations in 2023. It had 65% of new installations, and was followed by the U.S., Brazil and Germany, respectively. Together, these four countries accounted for 77% of new installations globally last year.

The report notes that growth in wind power installations is highly concentrated in a few big countries and links that to strong market frameworks to scale wind installations in those countries. The top five markets at the end of last year remained as China, the U.S., Germany, India and Spain.

Still, some other countries and regions are coming up, having witnessed record levels of growth in 2023.

Africa and the Middle East installed nearly 1 gigawatt of wind power capacity in 2023, almost triple that of the previous year. With upcoming projects in South Africa, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the report predicts that new onshore wind additions for Africa and the Middle East will grow fivefold by 2028 compared with 2023.

Some of the markets to watch include Kenya, where wind power provides around 17 percent of electricity, the report said. The country has the largest wind farm in Africa, the 310-megawatt Lake Turkana Wind Power Project, and the report notes new planned large-scale wind projects in the country, including a 1-gigawatt wind park by local power generator KenGen.

But building wind power installations is expensive and entails high up-front investments, and emerging and developing countries face higher cost of capital and pay higher loan rates to build out their wind.

Wind energy also faces supply chain and grid challenges, and innovation in the electricity system is needed to integrate intermittent wind energy onto the grid while retaining reliability, said Erin Baker, a professor of industrial engineering and operations research at the University of Massachusetts. Offshore wind, she said as an example, has some very specialized equipment and manufacturing, and also requires expertise in finance and business models.

But the accelerating growth of wind energy, as shown in the report, means that countries are developing the supply chains needed to keep this growth up, and it will “almost certainly” lead to reductions in cost and improvements in the technology as more and more is built around the world, she said.

“The recent growth, and nations support for the wind industry, are hopeful signs that the supply chain is being established,” said Baker.

Court rejects tribes’ request to block $10 billion Arizona energy transmission project 

A federal judge on Tuesday rejected a request by Native American tribes and environmentalists to stop work on a $10 billion transmission line being built through a remote southeastern Arizona valley that will carry wind-generated electricity from New Mexico to customers as far away as California.
The project — approved in 2015 following a lengthy review — has been touted as the biggest U.S. electricity infrastructure undertaking since the Hoover Dam was built in the 1930s.
Two tribes joined with archaeologists and environmentalists in filing a lawsuit in January, accusing the U.S. Interior Department and Bureau of Land Management of refusing for nearly 15 years to recognize “overwhelming evidence of the cultural significance” of the remote San Pedro Valley to Native American tribes including the Tohono O’odham, Hopi, Zuni and San Carlos Apache Tribe.
The suit was filed after Pattern Energy received approval to transmit electricity generated by its SunZia wind farm in central New Mexico through the San Pedro Valley, east of Tucson.
The lawsuit called the valley “one of the most intact, prehistoric and historical … landscapes in southern Arizona,” and asked the court to issue restraining orders or permanent injunctions to halt construction.
In denying the motions, Judge Jennifer Zipps said the plaintiffs were years too late in bringing their claims and that the Bureau of Land Management had fulfilled its obligations to identify historic sites and prepare an inventory of cultural resources.
Tohono O’odham Attorney General Howard Shanker argued during a hearing in March that claims by federal land managers that they could not find any evidence of the valley’s significance to area tribes was disingenuous at best. He referenced an academic book about the valley published by the University of Arizona Press and the declaration of a tribal member who once served as a cultural resource officer.
The transmission lines will forever transform “a place of beauty, prayer and solitude for generations of O’odham who want to connect with the spirits of their direct ancestors,” Shanker said. “So the irreparable harm is clear.”
Government representatives told the judge that the SunZia project is a key renewable energy initiative and that the tribes waited too long to bring their claims. They also argued that tribal representatives accompanied government officials in surveying the area in 2018 to identify and inventory any potential cultural resources.
Pattern Energy lawyers argued that more than 90% of the project had been completed and that there were no inadvertent discoveries of cultural sites in the valley. They told the judge that “through good planning” the sites that were identified have been avoided as crews cleared the ground for roads and pads where the transmission towers will be located.
The judge agreed, saying the record supports the Bureau of Land Management’s assertion that the project route avoids direct impacts to cultural resources that were identified by the surveys.
Pattern Energy also argued that stopping work would be catastrophic, with any delay having a cascading effect that would compromise the project and the company’s ability to get electricity to customers as promised in 2026.
SunZia expects the transmission line to begin commercial service in 2026, carrying more than 3,500 megawatts of wind power to 3 million people.
The San Pedro Valley represents a 50-mile (80-kilometer) stretch of the planned 550-mile (885-kilometer) conduit to carry electricity from wind farms in central New Mexico through Arizona and on to more populated areas in California. The project is among those that will bolster President Joe Biden’s agenda for cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
Work started last year in New Mexico following years of negotiations that resulted in approval from the Bureau of Land Management. The route in New Mexico was modified after the U.S. Defense Department raised concerns about the effects of high-voltage lines on radar systems and military training operations.
In Arizona, work was halted briefly in November amid pleas by tribes to review environmental approvals for the San Pedro Valley. Construction resumed weeks later in what Tohono O’odham Chairman Verlon M. Jose characterized as “a punch to the gut.”
During the March hearing, lawyers accused the federal government of stringing the tribes along with insinuations that more work would be done to survey the valley.
Hilary Tompkins, an attorney for Pattern Energy, described the consultation process over the last decade as comprehensive and said the plaintiffs had ample opportunities to raise their concerns.
“As construction continues, we remain committed to engaging in an open, good-faith effort to advance the goals of cultural resources protection, environmental stewardship and the clean energy transition,” she said Tuesday.
The transmission line also is being challenged before the Arizona Court of Appeals. The court is being asked to consider whether state regulatory officials properly considered the benefits and consequences of the project.

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