According to the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC), 51.3 GW of additional wind capacity was commissioned in 2018, of which 46.8 GW onshore and 4.5 GW offshore. The top five onshore markets that led the growth were namely China (+21.2 GW), the United States (+7.6 GW), Germany (+2.4 GW), India (+2.2 GW) and Brazil (1.9 GW). Promising regions such as Latin America, South-East Asia and Africa also contributed to this figure and were responsible for 4.8 GW (10%) of new wind onshore installations in 2018. As for offshore wind, the main contributions were recorded in China (+1.8 GW), the United Kingdom (+1.3 GW), Germany (+0.9 GW) and Belgium (+0.3 GW).
The GWEC predicts that this momentum is likely to continue over the next four years and expects new capacity additions to reach at least 55 GW per year until 2023. The future growth will be driven by developing markets in South East Asia, while mature regions such as Europe and the United States will continue to commission stable volumes by then.