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The continent and the Middle East remained the smallest market globally, although wind energy additions doubled in 2024 compared with the previous year Total installations in Egypt and Morocco in 2024 propelled wind energy to “unprecedented growth,” making it the best year in history for the sector in Africa. South Africa racked up disappointing wind project commissioning numbers last year, but is expected to bounce back strongly this year and through 2030. Globally, 2024 was a record year for new capacity, with 117GW (109GW onshore and 8GW of offshore) wind energy installed. The Global Wind Energy Council’s (GWEC) flagship Global Wind Report 2025 released on Wednesday (23 April) said this brought global cumulative capacity of wind energy to 1,136GW, spread across all continents, with 55 countries installing wind turbines last year. Wind energy uptick in Africa Of all the regions, only Asia Pacific, Africa and the Middle East increased new installations. The Asia-Pacific region saw a 7% year-on-year growth rate, while Africa and the Middle East saw a 107% y-o-y growth rate, thanks to Egypt installing 794MW and Saudi Arabia’s 390MW. Although 2024 was another record year for wind installations the headline numbers mask big disparities in terms of the pace of deployment across global markets North America, LATAM and Europe experienced a decline in new installations compared with 2023. Africa and the Middle East remained the smallest market although wind additions doubled in 2024 compared with the previous year, doubling onshore wind additions in 2024. “Although new commissioning was disappointing in South Africa – the region’s market leader in total wind installations – unprecedented growth in Egypt and Morocco made 2024 the best year in history for wind power in Africa. “Given more than half of the capacity awarded through the REIPPPP [Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme] Bid Window 4 auction are under construction, and nearly 2GW of private-offtake projects have been announced since the 2022 electricity market reforms, we believe that South Africa will bounce back in 2025 with stable growth expected for the rest of the period to 2030,” the report said. Record growth forecast for wind energy installations in Africa The report praised the South African government for its recently published “seminal Integrated Resource Plan, where wind will ramp up yearly and become a cornerstone of the country’s energy mix over the next decade.” GWEC Market Intelligence expects Africa to have record installations annually from 2025 to 2030, considering that multi-GW onshore wind projects are currently under construction – or are ready to be built – in Egypt. “Given the expected strong growth in Africa, GWEC Market Intelligence predicts that new onshore wind additions in Africa and the Middle East will double the end of this decade compared with 2024. “In total, 25GW of new capacity is expected to be added during 2024–2030, of which 17GW (69%) will come from Africa and the rest (31%) from the Middle East.” Global numbers also set to move the needle up Overall, the report forecasts a compound average growth rate of 8.8% for the wind industry, which means another 981GW of wind energy capacity across the globe by 2030. GWEC’s Market Intelligence service sees consecutive record years through to 2030, with 138GW of new capacity in 2025, 140GW in 2026, 160GW in 2027, 167GW in 2028 and a leap in 2029 and 2030 to 183GW and 194GW respectively. In 2024, China led the way for new installations ahead of the US, followed by Germany and India, respectively, with Brazil rounding out the Top 5. Those same five markets now make up the top five for total installations, as of the end of 2024, with Brazil moving past Spain. |
