China set to power global growth in offshore wind energy

GWEC estimates that the volume of the industry could reach 234GW by 2020, compared with just 29GW recorded at the end of last year. The lion’s share of this growth is expected to come from China, which is poised for significant growth, after 2.4GW of offshore wind capacity was brought onstream last year. China is already the third largest offshore wind market, behind only the United Kingdom and Germany.

The chief executive at GWEC, Ben Backwell, commented that China will be supported in this growth by emerging Asian markets: “Over the coming decade we will see emerging offshore wind markets like Japan, Korea and Vietnam move to full deployment, and see the first offshore turbines installed in a number of new countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa”.