Monday 11 February 2019

Africa and Middle East sail towards wind-powered future

Africa and Middle East sail towards wind-powered future

Africa and the Middle East installed a massive 962MW of new wind capacity in 2018.

The Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) has published a new set of statistics showing this is more than 300MW higher than the region's new installed capacity in 2017.

As a result of the surging growth, Africa and the Middle East is now home to a total 5.7GW of clean wind power.

And there's no end in sight - the expansion is set to continue, with GWEC forecasting more than 6.5GW of additional turbine capacity will be installed by 2023.

Currently, the region's leaders in wind energy are Egypt with 380MW, Kenya with 310MW and Morocco with 120MW.

Ben Backwell, CEO of GWEC, said: "Government commitment in Africa and Middle East is essential for wind energy to progress. Investments in grid and infrastructure are key drivers for growth.

"GWEC is especially watching the development in the Middle East. In January 2019, Saudi Arabia awarded 400MW to build the first commercial onshore wind farm in the Middle East. The bid of $21.30/KWh (£16.50/KWh) proves the competitiveness of onshore wind."

Written by

Bruna Pinhoni

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