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Global Wind Report 2022

The global wind industry had its second-best year in 2021, with almost 94 GW of capacity added globally, trailing behind the 2020’s record growth by only 1.8%. Europe, Latin America and Africa & Middle East had record years for new onshore installations, but total onshore wind installations in 2021 was still 18% lower than the previous year. The decline was driven primarily by the slow-down of onshore wind growth in the world’s two largest wind power markets, China and the US. 21.1 GW of offshore wind capacity was commissioned last year, three times more than in 2020. making 2021 the best year in offshore wind history, bringing its market share in global new installations to 22.5% in 2021. China made up 80% of offshore wind capacity added worldwide in 2021, bringing its cumulative offshore wind installations to 27.7 GW. This is an astounding level of growth, as it took three decades for Europe to bring its total offshore wind capacity to a similar level.Total global wind power capacity is now up to 837 GW, helping the world avoid over 1.2 billion tonnes of CO2 annually – equivalent to the annual carbon emissions of South America.

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