The UK’s commitment to renewable energy has seen it rise to the top of the tables as the world’s largest producer of power from offshore wind farms, but it won’t stay there very long. According to the International Energy Agency, the UK will likely be toppled by China by 2025.
China is undergoing a massive expansion in its offshore wind fleet with its capacity set to rise from 4 GW today to 110 GW by 2040. The Chinese government’s policies towards meeting global sustainable energy goals could push that number even further, however, with the IEA estimating that it could rise above 170 GW.
There’s no denying that China has been on a green revolution in recent years, which is unsurprising given the air quality of the country has become atrociously bad as a result of massive industrial expansion. Thankfully, the Chinese government has pushed to reduce the country’s CO2 emissions, and it’s already the world’s largest market for electric vehicles.
Still, China is responsible for creating twice the number of CO2 emissions as the United States, even though per capita looks more favourable to China. With that in mind, it’s good to see the Chinese government push for greener energy, and while the UK will continue to develop its fleet of offshore wind farms, there’s no denying that China has the space in which to build far more given the will.
Offshore wind elsewhere
It’s not just China that will aggressively expand the presence of offshore wind power, as the IEA has noted in its Offshore Wind Outlook 2019 that investment in the renewable energy source is set to increase 15-fold and attract around $1 trillion of cumulative investment by 2040.
The European Union is currently aiming to generate 180 GW of electricity from offshore wind power by 2040, with it set to become the region’s largest single source of electricity, while the United States has also been investing heavily in new wind farms off its North East coast. That’s despite wind turbines being considered an eyesore by the current US president, Donald Trump.