Global Wind Capacity to Nearly Double in Next Five Years: GWEC

Global wind energy capacity will nearly double in the next five years, largely led by further market growth in China, but also as a stronger industry emerges in the United States, the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) said on Tuesday.

In its annual report on the status of the global wind industry, GWEC said cumulative wind energy capacity was 433 gigawatts (GW) at the end of 2015, a 17 percent rise from the year before.

That should nearly double to around 792 GW by the end of 2020 as countries develop more renewable energy to comply with emissions cut targets, prices continue to fall and policies to support wind power in the United States stabilize, the wind industry association said in the report.

Wind energy installed in 2015 reached 63 GW, a 22 percent increase from the previous year.  China alone installed nearly half of that new capacity -- 30.8 GW.

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