Page 5 - AsiaElec Week 49 2021

AsiaElec COMMENTARY AsiaElec

Fitch: Wind power pipeline up

by almost 33% in six months

GLOBAL THE world’s wind project pipeline increased sig- leads the global pipeline with the highest vol-
nificantly between the second and fourth quar- ume of capacity, at 190 GW across all stages of
ters of 2021 as efforts to mitigate climate change development.
continued to drive the adoption of renewables. This highlights the advanced nature of these
This is according to a new report by Fitch Solu- markets’ ambitions to bring on more renewable
tions, the US credit rating agency. capacity amid reductions in fossil fuels, it said.
As much as 55% of that pipeline globally is Ranking second in our KPD, Asia also main-
offshore, much of it in traditional Western mar- tains a vast pipeline, says Fitch, although the
kets and throughout Asia, said Fitch. report does highlight that the actual value may
Offshore wind has the lowest development be larger than this, as the nature of some mar-
risks associated with the sector overall, although kets in the region, such as China, means many
onshore still remains safer in several markets, the projects are under-reported or are smaller than
report said. our KPD data capture thresholds.
“Our wind project pipeline registered in This has resulted in the Chinese wind market
our Key Projects Database (KPD) continues in particular being under-reported. While the
to expand with new impetus for growth amid market has a 14-GW project pipeline, including
global climate initiatives, such as COP26 [UN 8 GW in offshore wind projects, Fitch data sug-
Climate conference in Glasgow in November], gests that China will add 332 GW of wind capac-
to support larger wind capacity growth targets,” ity over the coming decade.
said Fitch. Fitch highlights that globally, offshore
This is important because of the rush to tran- wind has edged ahead of onshore wind for the
sition the energy sector to low- or non-carbon first time, capturing 55% of the known pro-
sources. The wind industry is the most mature ject pipeline against 45%. The value of the off-
of the renewable energy sectors, and as such, is shore sector also outweighs the onshore space
a bellwether of the potential of clean energy to with a total known value of $304bn compared
grow. with $137bn. However, Fitch stresses that this
According to the Fitch report, the North only reflects the value for 806 projects against
America and Western Europe (NAWE) region its 1,316 in the pipeline. This is also due to the

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