Page 5 - AfrElec Week 36 2021

AfrElec COMMENTARY AfrElec

wind capacity are parity-based projects, meaning procurement and smooth project timelines for
those projects will be paid based on the regulated both onshore and offshore wind.”
price for coal power in each province. “However, auction progress is not enough
Most provinces have not yet approved auc- to meet the growth volume and pace required
tions for new projects in 2021, because 30+ GW to keep the world on [a] path compatible with
onshore wind capacity and 10+ GW offshore meeting our climate goals under the Paris agree-
wind capacity approved during the 13th Five- ment, and reaching net zero by mid-century”
Year Plan period to 2020 are still to be built. said Zhao warned.
Japan awarded the first commercial floating
offshore wind auction of 16.8 MW to a six-com- Looking ahead
pany consortium led by Toda Corporation, mak- The GWEC expects 2021 to be the new record
ing it the only offshore wind auction awarded in year for new offshore wind capacity installed
Asia in Q2 2021. The project will be built in Goto, globally.
Nagasaki Prefecture, with the FiT set at 36 yen/ GWEC forecasts 235 GW of new offshore
kWh (or €0.25/kWh). wind capacity will be installed over the next dec-
India, the world’s fourth-largest market in ade under current policies.
terms of cumulative wind installed capacity, did That capacity is seven times bigger than the
not award any auctions on account of the second current market size, and is a 15% increase on the
wave of COVID-19 from April to mid-June. No previous year’s forecasts. However, this is only
wind auctions were awarded in Africa and the 11% of the capacity required to meet net-zero
Middle East in the second quarter of 2021. targets by 2050, according to the report.
In North America, following the momen- Based on scenarios published by the Inter-
tum in the US in Q1 2021, New Jersey awarded national Energy Agency (IEA) and the Interna-
two offshore wind projects for a total of 2.6 GW tional Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the
under its second solicitation. In Latin America, world needs 2,000 GW of offshore wind capacity
Brazil announced two technology-neutral auc- by 2050 to have a chance of keeping global tem-
tions with unknown capacity, A-3 and A-4, as per perature rises under 1.5°C pre-industrial levels.
schedule on 25 June 2021. The world had so far installed only 2% of the
offshore wind capacity that would be needed
Complex regulations by the middle of this century to avoid the worst
With Poland accounting for the bulk of new impacts of climate change, the GWEC said in its
onshore capacity and countries such as Germany report.
and India performing less well, the GWEC was “With the crucial COP26 conference just
critical of auction delays and difficult regulations. around the corner, now is the time for coun-
“Overly complex and bureaucratic permit- tries to introduce national policy frameworks to
ting procedures remain a critical market barrier, kick-start their offshore wind markets this dec-
which creates high attrition rates for project ade and show they are serious about renewables.
applications and are slowing down wind power Offshore will undoubtedly need to play a central
deployment in countries around the world, from role in global decarbonisation plans and is a nat-
Germany to India,” said Feng Zhao, head of strat- ural sector to re-skill workers from sunset fossil
egy and market intelligence at GWEC. fuel industries, while providing the technology
“To achieve our international climate tar- to bring new solutions like green hydrogen to the
gets, a sensible and positive regulatory environ- scale needed,” said Rebecca Williams, director of
ment needs to be in place to ensure successful COP26, GWEC.™

Week 36 09•September•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P5