Global Wind Energy in 2024: Progress, Promise, and Persistent Challenges

The year 2024 marked a significant chapter in the global wind energy story, with wind power continuing its upward trajectory despite facing several economic, policy, and structural headwinds. According to the Global Wind Energy Council’s (GWEC) Annual Report 2025, the world added 116.6 GW of new wind power capacity last year, bringing the global total to a remarkable 1136 GW. While this achievement underscores the continued growth and importance of wind energy in the global energy transition, it also reveals a number of critical challenges that must be addressed to ensure sustainable and equitable expansion.

Steady Onshore Growth, Slower Offshore Momentum

The onshore wind segment saw solid growth, increasing from 105 GW in 2023 to 109 GW in 2024. In contrast, offshore wind installations fell short of expectations, dropping from 11 GW in 2023 to just 8 GW in 2024. This disparity reflects not only market dynamics but also underlying challenges in financing, permitting, and grid integration, particularly affecting offshore projects.

Geographical Concentration Remains a Concern

One of the report’s key takeaways is the high regional concentration of new installations. China, Europe, and the United States accounted for a staggering 86% of global installations in 2024. The top five markets—China, the US, Brazil, India, and Germany—continued to dominate the sector. However, emerging markets like Uzbekistan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia made significant strides, offering a glimpse of the next wave of wind energy expansion across a more diverse set of geographies.

China alone contributed 70% of the global total, cementing its position as the global leader. Meanwhile, the Africa and Middle East region achieved a record year, doubling its onshore wind capacity additions and signaling rising momentum in non-traditional wind markets.

A Promising Outlook to 2030

Looking ahead, GWEC expects wind energy to break new records in 2025, with forecasted new installations reaching 139 GW. Under current policy frameworks, 981 GW of additional capacity could be added between 2025 and 2030, averaging 164 GW annually. This equates to a projected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.8% over the period. Notably, growth in Southeast Asia, Central Asia, and the MENA region is expected to gain pace, with annual record installations projected each year.

Navigating Industry-Wide Headwinds

Despite these optimistic forecasts, the industry faces serious challenges:

1. Financial and Macroeconomic Pressures

Rising costs across the value chain—materials, labor, logistics, and capital—are affecting project viability. High interest rates and elevated risk premiums have particularly impacted projects in emerging markets, slowing development and leading to undersubscribed auctions.

Utility-scale wind projects depend heavily on limited or non-recourse project finance, with debt typically covering 60–70% of total costs. The cost of this debt is driven by macroeconomic factors—especially interest rates and risk premiums tied to project and country-specific risks.

Although 2024 saw a decline in inflation and interest rates from recent highs, they remain elevated compared to the post-2008 low-interest era. This has made borrowing more expensive, particularly in emerging markets, where perceived risks further raise financing costs.

Wind energy is especially vulnerable to interest rates due to its high upfront capital costs. Unlike fossil fuel plants, where much of the cost lies in long-term fuel expenses, wind projects require substantial initial capital, making financing conditions a critical driver of the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE).

At the same time, global project CapEx has risen sharply due to supply chain constraints post-COVID and the economic fallout from the Russia–Ukraine war. Costs of raw materials, labor, logistics, and turbine components have all surged, placing pressure on manufacturers and developers alike. These rising expenses, paired with tighter margins, are slowing project pipelines and straining investment decisions.

2. Trade Barriers and Market Fragmentation

Protectionist policies, including tariffs and mandatory local content requirements, are increasingly fragmenting the global supply chain. This undermines the wind sector’s ability to scale efficiently, adding cost and complexity at a time when affordability is key to broad adoption.

3. Negative Pricing Trends

The rapid growth of renewable energy is revealing structural weaknesses in existing electricity market designs—most notably, the rising frequency of negative power prices, a trend gaining attention across Europe.

Negative prices occur when electricity supply significantly exceeds demand, pushing wholesale prices below zero. In such cases, generators may receive no revenue or even pay to remain online. While not a new phenomenon, these instances have grown more frequent in recent years, particularly during periods of high wind or solar output combined with low demand.

Without updated market structures or de-risking mechanisms in place, this trend could erode investor confidence in wind projects and raise financing costs. Extended periods of zero or negative pricing pose serious risks to the financial viability of renewable energy investments and could stall momentum if not addressed through thoughtful policy and market reform.

Critical Challenges That Need Immediate Action

Beyond these industry trends, the report identifies a set of structural challenges requiring urgent policy and strategic responses:

1. Auction Reforms

Auctions for long-term offtake contracts remain a cornerstone of renewable energy deployment, with 1,280 GW of clean energy capacity auctioned globally as of January 2025. Wind energy accounts for 31% of this total since 2003. Looking forward, 68 GW of onshore wind and 97 GW of offshore wind are scheduled to be auctioned.

However, auction systems that served well in the past may no longer meet the needs of today’s rapidly evolving market. Rising material costs, inflation, permitting delays, and supply chain bottlenecks are straining auction models and limiting their ability to deliver realistic and sustainable price signals.

To stay effective, auctions are beginning to evolve beyond price-only competition. Increasingly, they now include non-price criteria such as commitments to local supply chain development and sustainability goals—marking a shift toward more holistic project evaluation that balances cost with long-term value creation.

2. Grid Infrastructure Bottlenecks

Grid access has become a major challenge for the wind energy sector, as transmission infrastructure struggles to keep pace with the rapid expansion of wind projects. Many developers face long interconnection queues, especially in regions with abundant wind resources but insufficient grid capacity. Delays in permitting new grid infrastructure, congestion during peak generation periods, and curtailment issues reduce the reliability and profitability of wind farms.

Additionally, outdated grid systems lack the flexibility needed to integrate variable renewable energy, while investment in grid upgrades remains inadequate. Without significant improvements in grid infrastructure and planning, wind energy deployment risks slowing down despite strong market momentum.

Governments need to modernize and expand grid infrastructure, streamline permitting processes, and address curtailment issues to ensure timely connection of wind projects.

3. Social Acceptance and Misinformation

Public resistance to wind energy is increasingly being shaped by well-coordinated misinformation campaigns, often funded by fossil fuel interests. These campaigns have contributed to a rise in false beliefs about wind farms, including unfounded claims about health impacts and environmental damage.

A 2024 study published in Nature Communications revealed that nearly 30% of respondents in the U.S., U.K., and Australia agreed with half or more of the tested myths about wind energy—highlighting a broader, ideologically driven rejection rather than simple misunderstanding. This disinformation not only delays permitting processes but also threatens global wind energy targets and broader climate ambitions by eroding public trust and policymaker confidence.

Countering disinformation and building community trust will be critical for long-term social acceptance of wind energy.

4. Rigid Local Content Requirements (LCRs) and Tariffs

Local content requirements (LCRs) and tariffs are increasingly used by governments to protect and promote domestic industries, particularly in response to rising geopolitical risks and economic uncertainties since the 2008 financial crisis. 

LCRs compel investors to source a portion of goods or services locally, acting as non-tariff barriers that often disadvantage foreign players in procurement processes. Tariffs, on the other hand, directly raise the cost of imports to boost demand for domestic alternatives. 

While both measures can support industrial growth and job creation, especially in emerging markets, they also risk deterring foreign investment, limiting access to competitive suppliers, inflating costs, and ultimately undermining the local industries they are intended to protect.

5. The Race for Larger Turbines

The race to develop ever-larger wind turbine platforms is placing significant strain on original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), many of whom are already financially burdened. These companies are often forced to invest in new technologies before current models have fully matured, leading to rapid product iterations, frequent design changes, and ongoing technological updates. 

This disrupts production stability, hampers the learning curve, increases operational complexity, and drives up costs. To ensure long-term industry sustainability, this relentless innovation push must be balanced with greater emphasis on quality, standardization, and preserving value across the turbine lifecycle.

Conclusion: A Decisive Decade Ahead

The global wind industry stands at a critical juncture. The opportunities for rapid expansion are enormous, especially in emerging markets. Yet, unlocking this growth will depend on the industry’s and governments’ ability to confront current headwinds, reform outdated systems, and build a resilient, inclusive, and forward-looking wind energy ecosystem.

As the world races toward its decarbonization goals, wind energy will continue to play a central role. With the right policy frameworks, infrastructure investments, and public engagement strategies, the sector can overcome present hurdles and usher in a truly global clean energy revolution.