According to preliminary wind power statistics published by the World Wind Energy Association, the world set a new record in new wind power installations, adding 93GW of new wind energy capacity in 2020. Some countries set new installation records, including China, the USA and Russia, while most European markets saw only modest growth.
China was still in a class of its own and built around 52GW within one year, which corresponds to a market share of 56%. With this addition, China now has installed wind capacity of 289GW, 39% of global capacity.
The US market also developed extraordinarily and grew by almost 17GW in 2020. With such new record and wind farms with a total of 122GW, the USA undisputedly consolidated its number 2 position worldwide.
There were hardly any changes among the top ten wind power markets. Brazil climbed from position 8 to 7, with a market volume of 2,5GW (total: 18GW), while France fell from 7 to 8.
The newcomer of the year was without a doubt Russia which tripled its installed wind capacity from 312MW to 1027NW and, after ranking 53rd at the end of 2019, reached the 37th place in the wind power market. The Republic of Korea (33rd to 30th) as well as Argentina (30th to 27th) both climbed three places.