China Leads in New Offshore Wind Capacity Second Year in Row, Likely to Preserve Top Position in 2023

February 20, 2023, by Adrijana Buljan

In 2022, 9.4 GW of offshore wind capacity was installed worldwide and China alone installed 6.8 GW of this. The country’s top position in adding new offshore wind capacity will likely be preserved in 2023, as well, as China is also leading in projects currently under construction, according to a new report from World Forum Offshore Wind (WFO).

There were 42 new offshore wind farms that went into operation last year and 29 of these were installed in China, followed by Vietnam (5), Japan (2), the UK (1), South Korea (1), Italy (1), France (1), Spain (1), and Germany (1).

“It is excellent to see that important new offshore wind markets such as France and Japan have successfully installed their first commercial-scale offshore wind farms. We will see many more countries from around the world join the offshore wind industry over the next few years”, said Gunnar Herzig, Managing Director, World Forum Offshore Wind (WFO).

China ended 2021 with 12.7 GW of newly installed capacity and increased its total to 19.7 GW by the end of that year. With 6.8 GW added in 2022, the country now has 26.5 GW in its waters and accounts for 44 per cent of the world’s total offshore wind capacity.

Global installed offshore wind capacity reached 57.6 GW at the end of 2022. With the UK accounting for 13.6 GW, Germany for 8 GW and the Netherlands for 3 GW, it means that China now has more offshore wind installed than the three countries following it on the list combined.

The Chinese offshore wind sector also had a total capacity of 3,688 MW under construction at the end of 2022, with the UK in second place with 2,790 MW, closely followed by Taiwan with 2,505 MW, and the Netherlands with 2,259 MW. France and Germany follow in fifth and sixth place with 993 MW and 257 MW under construction, respectively, WFO’s Global Offshore Wind Report 2022 report says.