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Good morning. The Global Wind Report 2026 is out, and if you only read one thing about the state of wind energy this year, make it this. Here's what you need to know |
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The global wind industry installed 165 GW of new capacity in 2025. That's a new record, and it pushes cumulative global wind power past 1,299 GW worldwide.
But behind that headline number is a more important story: wind is no longer simply growing, it is becoming indispensable. To grids. To industrial strategies. To governments that have connected the dots between energy security and energy independence. |
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Asia is leading. By a long way. |
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The most striking data in this year's report comes from Asia. China installed more than 120 GW of wind in 2025 alone - nearly matching the entire world's 2024 total. India recorded its best-ever year: 6.34 GW of new onshore capacity, an 85% jump on the previous year, reclaiming its position as the world's third-largest wind market.
And beyond the headline markets, the structural shift is clear. South Korea, Vietnam and the Philippines are converting regulatory reform into live project pipelines. GWEC projects that Asia Pacific (outside China) will become the third-largest offshore wind growth market globally by 2030. The Asia wind story is only getting started. |
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Energy security has been redefined. |
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This report is published at a moment of profound geopolitical pressure. Fossil fuel supply disruptions, price shocks and cascading economic consequences have once again exposed the structural vulnerability of fossil fuel-dependency. The countries that felt it least? The ones that had already started building wind at scale. Wind delivers across all four dimensions of energy security: availability, accessibility, affordability and acceptability. It reduces reliance on imported fuels, stabilises long-term electricity costs and offers governments a path toward sovereign, resilient energy systems.
Wind energy is no longer just a climate argument. It is a strategic decision about energy security. |
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| | Wind is no longer the preserve of a small group of mature economies. Saudi Arabia more than quadrupled its annual installations to 1.5 GW. Chile tripled its additions to over 1.1 GW. Türkiye extended its position as one of the most active onshore markets, approaching 16 GW cumulative. Sweden and Romania posted some of the sharpest year-on-year growth rates in Europe.
The pattern, wherever it emerges, is the same: stable policy, efficient permitting, coordinated grid planning, alignment between energy and industrial strategy.
There's a proven formula. This year's report profiles the markets putting it into practice -and the ones with the potential to follow.
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Wind is an economic strategy, not just an energy one. |
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The markets winning on wind in 2025 weren't just decarbonising. They were investing in ports, in manufacturing, in supply chains, in rural economies, in workforces.
Large-scale wind deployment triggers spending far beyond the turbine. Onshore wind distributes long-term investment into regional communities. Offshore wind is driving port modernisation, high-voltage transmission upgrades and specialised maritime services. And floating offshore wind is opening deep-water markets that didn't exist five years ago. This is what the next phase of economic competition looks like. The countries that recognise it are already forging ahead. |
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The challenges are real. GWEC’s Global Wind Report sets out how to tackle them. |
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| Record installations don't mean everything is working.
Misinformation campaigns are becoming more sophisticated, working to undermine public confidence in wind energy. Protectionist trade measures are threatening the diversified supply chains the industry depends on. And despite record wind auctions globally, offshore wind installation rates are still not keeping pace with what's needed for 2030.
The most successful markets last year were the ones that didn't use those pressures as excuses to slow down. They combined ambition with action. The report sets out how others can do the same. |
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Wind power is no longer simply an environmental solution. It is a strategic infrastructure asset, delivering economic, industrial and energy security benefits at scale, across every region, and in markets that didn't appear on any deployment map five years ago.
The Global Wind Report 2026 is the most comprehensive analysis of where the industry stands and what it will take to sustain the momentum.
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