At last year’s COP28 climate talks in Dubai, leaders of more than 130 countries agreed to triple power renewable energy sources by the end of the decade. This was one of the few specific agreements at the annual meeting and a goal that is critical to reducing dependence on fossil fuels – reminds Bloomberg. While this goal remains achievable, the current pace of implementation clean energy is not sufficient and development wind turbines is delayed, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency.
Wind energy is developing too slowly
“One of the biggest issues here is wind,” said Oliver Metcalfe, head of wind research at BloombergNEF. “The slow pace of wind energy development affects the effectiveness of tripling the renewable energy target.” Ten years ago, annual photovoltaic installations and wind were neck and neck and then solar power increased significantly. Massive investment in production capacity by industry leaders in China then drove down panel prices.
Wind farms are growing in China
Global wind power capacity has almost doubled in the last five years, and solar panel capacity has more than tripled. According to BNEF forecasts, solar installations will grow by 34% in 2024, compared to 5% growth for wind energyj. But outside China, wind farm installations may decline slightly this year.
According to Sven Utermöhlen, head of the offshore wind energy division at the German concern RWE AG, there are serious bottlenecks in the wind industry, such as insufficient supplies of equipment, lack of electricity grid capacity and permitting issues.
Problems of the wind sector
BNEF forecasts that by 2030, solar energy will reach more than 90% of the capacity required to keep the world on track to achieving net zero emissions by 2050. Wind will only reach about 77% of the necessary power by the same date. The wind sector has often faced public opposition to large onshore farms and even complaints about offshore turbines spoiling ocean views.
There are also costs. While rising solar panel production in China has helped drive costs down to record lows, rising prices for steel and other critical turbine components, as well as supply chain bottlenecks and higher borrowing costs, have pushed up the cost of wind projects in recent years. By the end of last year, the cost of energy from new onshore wind farms had increased dramatically in both the U.S. and Germany, according to BNEF levelized cost of energy data. In the United States, it is up about 40% from the record low reached in 2021. Germany, the largest wind energy market in Europe, grew by 35% from its low in 2019.
