The latest data released by the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) shows Africa and the Middle East installed 894MW capacity of wind power in 2019, a decrease of 7% on the previous year which saw 962MW installed. GWEC expects that 10.7GW of wind energy capacity will be installed between 2020-2024.In 2019, the leading countries in the region for wind power capacity include:
- Egypt (262MW)
- Morocco (216 MW)
- Jordan (190MW)
- Ethiopia (120MW)
Over the next five years, South Africa will be leading the growth trend in the region with an additional 3.3GW of wind energy capacity installed by 2024.
Considering other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, the significant potential for wind energy remains clear, with the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region alone accounting for 18GW of wind energy potential in emerging markets such as Zambia, Tanzania, Namibia, and Mozambique.
In North Africa and the Middle East, GWEC foresees an acceleration in growth in the next few years as a maturing project pipeline will come into place in 2020 to support an increase in wind power capacity, with GWEC Market Intelligence preliminary forecasts showing that wind energy capacity will surge over the next five years in markets such as Egypt (1.8GW), Morocco (1.2GW) and Saudi Arabia (1.2GW).
