Wind to account for half world's renewables by 2035

In its World Energy Outlook report, examining the energy sector by region up until 2035, the IEA said renewables will become the world’s second largest source of power generation by 2015.

Additionally it said it would close in on coal as the primary source by 2035. However, the IEA said this increase hinges critically on continued subsidies.

In 2011, these subsidies amounted to $88 billion, but over the period to 2035 need to amount to $4.8 trillion; over half of this has already been committed to existing projects or is needed to meet 2020 targets.

In the New Policies Scenario (NPS), where recent government policy commitments are assumed to be implemented, incremental electricity output from wind increases dramatically from 342TWh in 2010 to around 2680TWh in 2035. This pushes up wind energy's share in total electricity generation from 1.6% to 7.3%.

Wind also achieves the highest level of market penetration in the European Union, where it accounts for almost one fifth of electricity generated in 2035, compared with less than 5% in 2010.

Wind power capacity worldwide increases from 238GW in 2011 to almost 1100GW in 2035. Onshore wind makes up four fifths of this growth.