By 2030, one-fifth of world electricity to be supplied by wind: Report

New Delhi: The most underrated source of renewable energy, wind power, has the potential to meet the global power demands of one-fifth of the world population by 2030, according to the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) report. The report analysed various important senarois and pointed out that by 2030, about 20% of the electricity demands will be fulfilled by wind energy.

"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 per cent 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 per cent 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 per cent 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 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030.

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

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