Brazil and Finland have already exceeded their national wind energy targets, while the US and India are among those that are far from their goals.
This is stated in the report of the research center Ember.
Overall, the world is falling short of the promise made at the UN Climate Change Conference COP28 last December. At that time, countries pledged to triple their electricity production from renewable energy sources (RES) by 2030. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) and other organisations, wind power needs to triple to meet this target.
However, 10 countries intend to exceed their targets for developing the sector, analysts say.
Ember analysts examined the national targets of 70 countries, which account for 99% of existing wind power, and predict that wind power will double over the next 6 years, not triple, from a 2022 baseline.
Source: ember-climate.org
Which countries are most likely to miss their wind energy targets?
The report notes that the US ranked last, falling short of 100 gigawatts, enough to power more than 30 million homes.
The second largest gap between national targets and wind energy projects under development is in India at more than 30 gigawatts. Despite significant wind potential, only 4 percent of the country's electricity is generated from wind, says Cathy Altieri, power analyst at Ember.
Which countries are at the forefront of wind energy development?
The best performers on this indicator are Brazil and Finland, which exceed their wind energy targets by 15 and 11 gigawatts, respectively. They are among only 10 countries expected to exceed their targets. 7 of these 10 countries are in Europe, including Turkey.
Who grazes the hindquarters and why
Altieri named Japan, South Korea and Russia among the coastal countries that have significant wind potential but have just begun to use it.
According to the expert, like many other islands, Japan is also very windy, but produces a little more than 1% of its energy from wind.
"The ocean is very deep immediately off the coast of Japan, so that complicates the task," said John Reilly of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who has studied energy policy and climate change for 45 years.
He says the country also has steep mountainous terrain, which also makes siting turbines difficult.
Strict regulation in South Korea makes it difficult to build wind turbines, and public opinion has further slowed the industry's development, the expert says. Around the world, wind turbines often face resistance.
According to NREL, Russia has one of the largest wind energy potential of any country, but according to Ember, it will generate less than 1% of its electricity from wind in 2023. John Reilly explains this by the fact that Russia has huge reserves of natural gas and coal, so it has no real economic incentives for the development of wind energy. In addition, the country does not seek to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Why has interest in wind energy waned?
Experts believe that falling prices have allowed solar energy to eclipse wind energy.
"When many of these big commitments were made, wind looked like the cheapest source of renewable energy. But starting in 2020, the price of solar has dropped dramatically," says Reilly.
Although some countries are lagging behind, lead study author Altieri says there are reasons for optimism.
"Europe shows excellent results. And this despite the fact that the North Sea – an incredible wind energy resource – is almost not used," she says.
The expert predicts that Europe and China will continue to dominate the expansion of wind power generation.
As EcoPolitic reported earlier, in the first half of 2024 for the first time in the EU wind and solar power have overtaken energy from fossil fuels.
We also talked about what Spanish is company Vortex Bladeless develops fundamentally new wind generators that work from vibration.
