The inventory of offshore wind projects in development or under production has nearly doubled in the last year, to an astonishing 846 gigawatts, according to the latest market intelligence data report from RenewableUK.
“The global growth of offshore wind over the last year is nothing short of staggering,” said CEO Dan McGrail. “This technology is now a truly global industry, not just in Europe and Asia, but also with major projects under way in North and South America and Australia.”
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The report shows China with the biggest offshore wind project pipeline, at 98 gigawatts, followed by the United Kingdom at 91 GW, the United States at 80 GW, and Germany at 57 GW, ReNews.biz reports, in a report republished by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. Europe as a whole accounts for 350 GW of the global total.
Other countries with major offshore wind developments include Brazil, Sweden, Ireland, Vietnam, and South Korea.
The overwhelming majority of that capacity has yet to go into service. China has the largest inventory of operational offshore wind farms, at 24.5 GW, followed by the UK at 10.5 GW, Germany at 7.7 GW, the Netherlands at 3 GW, and Denmark at 2.3 GW, IEEFA says.
Regardless of collective humankind’s vulnerable over-reliance on planet-warming fossil fuels, it’s no longer prudent to have all or even most infrastructure reliant on such traditional sources of power. But if the universal availability of a renewable-energy alternative would come at the expense of the traditional ‘energy’ production companies’ large profits, one can expect obstacles, including the political and regulatory sort.
If something notably conflicts with long-held and deeply entrenched corporate interests, even very progressive motions are greatly resisted, often enough successfully. And, of course, there will be those who will rebut the renewable-energy type/concept altogether, perhaps solely on the illogic that if it was possible, it would have been patented already and made a few people very wealthy.
Meanwhile, mass addiction to fossil fuel products undoubtedly helps keep the average consumer quiet about the planet’s greatest polluter, lest they feel and/or be publicly deemed hypocritical. Including those individual consumers who like idling their parked vehicles for many minutes, even in very warm weather.