Asia's onshore wind capacity to hit 2,600GW by 2050: IRENA

It could take up half of the world’s onshore capacity by that time.

Asia could grow its share of installed capacity for onshore wind from 230GW in 2018 to over 2,600GW by 2050, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). By that time, the region is expected to be the global leader in wind, accounting for more than 50% of all onshore and over 60% of all offshore wind capacity installed globally.

Within Asia, China is expected to take the lead with 2,525GW of installed onshore and offshore wind capacity by 2050, followed by India (443GW), Republic of Korea (78GW) and Southeast Asia (16GW).

In the report, IRENA said that wind power could tremendously scale and cover a third of global power needs and deliver a quarter of the energy-related carbon emission reductions needed to meet the Paris climate targets.

To reach this objective, onshore and offshore wind capacity will need to increase four-fold and ten-fold respectively every year compared to today, said IRENA director-general Francesco La Camera.

“On average, global annual investment in onshore wind must increase from today $67b to $211b in 2050. For offshore wind, global average annual investments would need to increase from $19b to $100b in 2050,” IRENA added.

Globally, the levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) for onshore wind is expected to fall to 2-3 cents/kWh by 2050 compared to 6 cents/kWh in 2018, the report said.