April 7, 2022: -The wind energy sector had its second-best year in 2021. Still, installations will need to increase going forward to keep track of net-zero goals, according to a new report from the Global Wind Energy Council.

Capacity refers to the maximum amount of electrical installations can produce, not what they’re necessarily generating. Published Monday, the GWEC’s Global Wind Report 2022 said 93.6 gigawatts of capacity was installed last year, less than the 95.3 GW installed in 2020. The cumulative total grew to 837 GW.

The offshore wind segment installed 21.1 GW in 2021, its best-ever year. Installations in the onshore wind came in at 72.5 GW last year, against 88.4 GW in 2020.

According to the GWEC, whose members include firms like Vestas, Orsted, and Shell,34,34az, the main drivers of the decline in onshore installations were China and the U.S.

30.7 GW was installed in 2021 for China compared to over 50 GW in 2020; the GWEC cites the ending of the country’s feed-in tariff as the reason behind the drop.

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The U.S. has installed 12.7 GW of onshore capacity in 2021, a 4.16 GW decline compared to 2020. The GWEC pointed to “disruptions due to COVID-19 and supply chain issues,” which “slow down project construction execution from the 3rd quarter of 2021 onwards.”