'Wind power could generate 20% of world electricity by 2030'

Beijing: Wind power could supply up to 20 percent of global electricity by 2030 owing to dramatic cost reductions and efforts to check climate change, said a Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) report released on Tuesday.

"By 2030 wind power could reach 2,110 GW, and supply up to 20 per cent of global electricity, creating 2.4 million new jobs and reducing CO2 emissions by more than 3.3 billion tonnes per year, and attract annual investment of about ?200 billion," GWEC said in a release here.

"Now that the Paris (climate talks) Agreement is coming into force, meeting the targets means a completely decarbonised electricity supply well before 2050, and wind power will play the major role in getting us there," said GWEC Secretary General Steve Sawyer.

"Wind power is the most competitive option for adding new capacity to the grid in a growing number of markets," he added.

The report said total global wind power installations stood at 433 GW by the end of 2015, up 17 percent from a year earlier, and are set to rise by around 60 GW in 2016.

A major chunk of this increase was driven by China, which accounted for 145.4 GW at the end of 2015, or 33.6 percent of the total. China built 30.8 GW of new wind power capacity over the year, the highest annual addition by any country, it said.

The offshore wind industry has taken large strides forward with more than 3.4 GW installed in 2015, bringing total offshore wind capacity to over 12 GW, the report added.

GWEC said new markets are developing rapidly across Africa, Asia and Latin America, supplying clean energy to support sustainable development.

As part of its global commitment, India has to ensure that 40 per cent of its power capacity comes from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030, up from 30 percent currently, as per a power ministry assessment in August 2016.

The countries that sign the Paris accord must reduce the focus on fossil fuels in their energy mix to 30-35 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. 

India has the fourth largest wind turbine capacity globally. The wind turbine capacity increased 12 percent from 114,609 MW in 2014 to 145,109 MW in 2015.

India has 2.2 percent of solar power capacity in the world, and is among the top 10 nations.