China to overtake UK as the world’s top offshore wind farms installer as it works towards carbon-neutral goal
- China led the world in new annual offshore wind installations for the third year in a row with over 3 gigawatts of new offshore wind capacity in 2020
- Growth will primarily be driven by developers’ rush to complete projects before Beijing withdraws its tariff subsidy programme at the end of the year
China, which installed the most offshore wind capacity for a third year in a row of over 3 gigawatts last year, is expected to surpass Britain as the global leader this year as its coal-dominated electricity industry seeks to decarbonise, according to the Global Wind Energy Council.
“After replacing Germany as the second largest offshore wind market by accumulative installations last year, China is expected to overtake the UK as the number one market this year,” Zhao Feng, head of market intelligence and strategy at the council, told a webinar on Thursday.
“In 2021, we will continue to feel the heat of the China market, as the cut-off line for offshore projects to qualify for the central government’s subsidised power tariffs is the end of the year.”
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Working day and night on world’s largest offshore wind farm
China’s installed capacity grew 27.8 per cent last year, making up half of the world’s 6.07 gigawatts of offshore wind farms erected globally, ahead of the Netherland’s 24.6 per cent and Belgium’s 11.6 per cent, the council’s data showed. On an accumulative basis, Britain has built 29 per cent of the global total of 35.2GW, followed by China’s 28.1 per cent and Germany’s 22 per cent.
At least 5GW or more of installed capacity is likely to come on stream in China this year, Feng said, noting that a pipeline of over 10GW of offshore projects were approved or were under construction at the end of last year.