According to the latest data released by GWEC, the global offshore wind industry installed over 6GW of new capacity in 2020. This growth was driven by China, which installed over half of the new offshore wind capacity globally last year.Steady growth in Europe accounted for the majority of remaining new capacity, led by the Netherlands which installed nearly 1.5GW of new offshore wind in 2020. Other European offshore wind markets also experienced stable growth last year, with Belgium (706MW), the UK (483MW), and Germany (237MW), all installing new capacity in 2020. The slowdown of growth in the UK is due to the gap between the Contracts for Difference (CfD) 1 and CfD 2. In Germany, the slowdown is primarily caused by unfavourable conditions and a weak short-term offshore wind project pipeline.
The only new floating offshore wind capacity recorded in 2020 was also in Europe, with 17MW installed in Portugal.
Outside of China and Europe, two other countries recorded new offshore wind capacity in 2020: South Korea (60MW) and the US (12MW). Overall, global offshore wind capacity now exceeds 35GW.