Greenpeace sees wind power supplying 20% of global electricity by 2030

(ADPnews) - Oct 12, 2010 - Wind power could meet some 20% of the global power needs by 2030, according to a report by industry group and environmental watchdog Greenpeace.

The global wind power market rose by 41.7% year-on-year in 2009, exceeding by far the 28.6% average annual growth in the past 13 years. The Chinese market took the second place globally in terms of installed wind power capacity for the year, and was first by purchases of wind technology, Steve Sawyer, secretary general of the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) said at the presentation of GWEC and Greenpeace's Global Wind Energy Outlook 2010 report. "We would expect China to continue to be the largest market and perhaps even be the (overall) largest market in the world by the end of this year," Sawyer said.

In Greenpeace's most optimistic scenario, installed wind power is to generate 2,600 TWh of power by 2020, which equals 11.5-12.3% of the total electricity supply. By 2030, the figure is seen to reach 5,400 TWh or about 18.8% to 21.8% of the global power demand.

The installed capacity will save a total 10 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) by 2020 and 34 billion tonnes by 2030. The projected figure per year is 1.6 billion tonnes, and it is expected to go up by 3.3 billion tonnes of CO2 every year until 2030.

According to Sawyer, for over 10 years now, the wind sector's actual performance has always beat the best-case scenario.

As part of the most conservative scenario, wind power capacity will triple in the next 10 years, supplying 4.8% of global power needs. The moderate scenario sees wind power accounting for 9.5% of the world's electricity mix by 2020.

Choose your newsletter by Renewables Now. Join for free!