Energy · Wind Power

Global Wind Power Capacity

The other half of the renewable transition: onshore and offshore, scaling 76× since 2000.

• 17 GW → 1,291 GW since 2000
• Doubling time: ~3 yrs → ~6 yrs
• Annual additions still rising: 158 GW in 2025
• Onshore capacity factor: mid-20s→mid-30s%

Global installed wind capacity grew from ~17 GW in 2000 to about 1,291 GW by end of 2025, roughly 76× in 25 years. Every point is IRENA’s, on one consistent basis, from their July 2026 yearbook: the 2025 figure was a provisional industry estimate until IRENA published its own, which came in slightly lower at 1,291 GW. Unlike solar, wind has two distinct deployment regimes: onshore (mature, geographically constrained) and offshore (newer, capital-intensive but with vastly higher capacity factors). China leads new installations by a wide margin. Wind is the silent partner to solar in the renewable transition, the two together making up most new global generating capacity added each year. The doubling time has stretched from about three years through the 2000s to about six over the last decade. Read that carefully: this is cumulative installed stock, so a lengthening doubling time is partly just arithmetic on a bigger base, and annual additions are still rising. Roughly 158 GW went up in 2025 against 114 GW in 2024. The meaningful comparison is with solar, which has held near a three-year doubling over the same period. The two curves were once comparable; they are not any more. Larger rotors and taller towers have steadily raised output per unit of nameplate capacity: the global average onshore capacity factor has climbed from the mid-20s to the mid-30s percent since the 2000s, and the best modern sites do better still.

Source: IRENA Renewable Energy Statistics 2026

Download the data: wind_capacity.csv · wind_capacity.json

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