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vol. 13
04 May 2023
UPCOMING WIND POWER DEVELOPMENT
By Edoardo Simonelli, Eleonora Cacchio
According to the most recent GWEC estimates, 2023 will see the record for new wind capacity installed for the fourth year in a row reaching 100 GW globally.
This is only the beginning of a global year-on-year growth rate (CAGR) of 13% that will hopefully result in 1.221 GW of new wind capacity over the next seven years, reaching the 2 TW threshold by 2030.
Onshore installations will naturally play a leading role in this global growth, but what are the effects of increased wind power capacity?
Based on industry experience, a country that installs 1 GW of onshore wind power each year for five years will be able to power 5,9 million houses at the end of the fifth year, while saving as much as 34,6 million gallons of water per year that would have been otherwise used for thermoelectric generation. In addition, over the entire life cycle of wind farms, $19,3 billion in gross value added to the national economy and 414.000 jobs can be unlocked, as well as 290 million metric tons of CO2e saved.
In the case of the European Union, it would need to install 30 GW a year of new wind farms to meet its 2030 targets. This can only be achieved through an improvement of wind power supply chain on the continent with producer-friendly measures that include simplifying the permitting processes for wind farms, and accelerating access to funding for infrastructure investments to improve the cost-effectiveness of the prior steps to installation of new wind power capacity.
These measures are a particular priority in the development of the energy potential of mini-wind power, which is estimated by ANEV to be 1.500 GWh per year on the Italian territory, that can be produced by about 850 MW of installed wind power capacity.