Global wind installations surge 40% to record 165 GW

By Francis Allan L. Angelo

The global wind industry installed a record 165 gigawatts of new capacity in 2025, a 40% increase over the previous year, according to the Global Wind Energy Council’s 2026 Global Wind Report released Sunday.

The surge pushed cumulative global wind capacity to 1,299 GW across 138 countries. A total of 28,395 wind turbines were installed in 57 countries last year.

The report, published amid supply shocks and rising prices in international oil and gas markets, shows the wind sector scaling at speed as a cornerstone of the energy transition.

The Asia-Pacific region dominated new installations with 131 GW, or 80% of the global total. China and India together added more than 126 GW, with China alone contributing 120.5 GW and India nearly doubling its annual additions to a record 6.3 GW.

“The steep increase we have seen in global wind installations sets a new benchmark for an industry which is rapidly accelerating and responding to heightened demand for homegrown, affordable and resilient renewable energy,” said Ben Backwell, CEO of GWEC.

“At a time when skyrocketing oil and gas prices and supply shocks are once again causing disruption to economies around the world, the wind sector has demonstrated its ability to scale at speed. Accelerated growth led by Asia is enabling the rapid transition of fast-growing energy markets to electro-state economies, and showing that, where wind is built at scale, it can successfully compete with all alternatives, from coal to nuclear,” he added.

The top five markets for new installations — China, the United States, India, Germany, and Brazil — accounted for 86% of global additions in 2025 and comprised 75% of the world’s total installed capacity.

Fourteen countries each commissioned more than a gigawatt of new wind power: China (120.5 GW), USA (6.9 GW), India (6.3 GW), Germany (5.7 GW), Brazil (2.3 GW), Türkiye (2.1 GW), Sweden (1.8 GW), Spain (1.6 GW), Saudi Arabia (1.5 GW), France (1.4 GW), United Kingdom (1.3 GW), Australia (1.2 GW), Chile (1.2 GW), and Finland (1.0 GW).

New onshore wind installations reached a record 155.3 GW, up 42% year on year, while offshore wind added 9.3 GW, an increase of 16%. Global cumulative offshore wind capacity reached 92.3 GW, approaching the 100 GW milestone.

In Europe, total installed wind capacity surpassed the 300 GW threshold. The continent added 19.1 GW of new capacity, up 16% on the previous year, driven by strong growth in Germany and Türkiye. EU-27 countries installed 15.1 GW, a 17% increase, although still below the annual average needed to meet the bloc’s 2030 energy and climate targets.

In the United States, annual onshore wind installations rose by nearly 7 GW, a 71% year-on-year rebound after four years of declining growth.

China dominated onshore installations, adding more than 110 GW, or 73% of the global total. An additional 124 GW of future capacity was approved in 2025 under the country’s new market-oriented pricing mechanism, a third higher than the previous year.

India’s record growth saw annual onshore additions jump from 3.4 GW in 2024 to 6.3 GW in 2025, an 86% increase. The country has pledged to scale non-fossil fuel capacity to 500 GW by 2030.

Africa and the Middle East posted another record year, driven by renewed growth in South Africa and unprecedented expansion in Saudi Arabia. The 1,500 MW Dawadmi windfarm in Saudi Arabia set a new world record for the lowest-cost wind project at USD 1.338/kWh.

Offshore wind saw 11.4 GW of future capacity awarded in 2025, one-fifth of the record amount in 2024. The decline reflected failed auction rounds in Europe, cancellations in the United States, and changes to China’s market support mechanism.

Latin America and the Caribbean was the only region to experience a relative decline in annual additions. Brazil, which installed 2.3 GW, saw new installations slow due in part to weak electricity demand and increased curtailment.

Girish Tanti, vice chairman of Suzlon Group and vice chair of GWEC, said: “A 40% phenomenal growth across 138 countries demonstrates the accelerating role of wind in the global energy transition. The top five markets – China, the United States, India, Germany and Brazil – accounted for 86% of new capacity additions in 2025 reflecting a powerful convergence of policy alignment, scale and investment. These markets also represent nearly 75% of the world’s total installed wind capacity, reinforcing their leadership in shaping the future of the sector. With this sustained momentum, we are firmly on track to potentially surpass wind’s global potential of 2 TW by 2030.”

GWEC Market Intelligence projects 969 GW of new wind capacity to be commissioned between 2026 and 2030, averaging 194 GW annually, with a compound annual growth rate of 5.2%.

While China is expected to drive an estimated 63% of new installations in 2026, greater market diversification is expected by the end of the decade. Rapid acceleration in Southeast Asia, Central Asia, and Africa and the Middle East from 2027 is forecast to push more than half of global growth to markets outside China.

Global wind capacity is projected to surpass the historic 2-terawatt milestone by 2029, just six years after passing 1 TW in 2023.

Backwell warned that global growth remains uneven and the world is not on track to triple renewables by 2030.

“Bureaucratic red tape and slow roll-out of grids is stopping badly needed projects from being built in many areas of the world. However, by acting decisively to address the blockages, policymakers can quickly access a huge pipeline of ready to invest projects,” he said.

Last month, GWEC published a Wind Action Plan to Break the Cycle of Energy Crises, setting out emergency policy measures for governments to accelerate wind deployment and strengthen energy resilience. The plan calls on countries to fast-track permitting, address grid blockers, mobilize finance, expand electrification, and scale up supply chains.