RESEARCH
Global Wind Power Additions Hit a 2025 Record -- Trackers Split Between 158.7 and 176 GW
Global wind power installations set a new annual record in 2025, driven by an unprecedented surge in Chinese onshore construction. But the three organizations that track the industry -- IRENA, GWEC, and Wood Mackenzie -- posted full-year 2025 addition totals ranging from 158.7 GW to 176 GW, a roughly 17 GW (10%) gap on the same reporting year. All three agree 2025 beat the prior record by a wide margin, but disagree on the exact scale because each uses different criteria for what counts as commissioned capacity and different cutoffs for late-reported Chinese provincial installations.
Findings
- IRENA's Renewable Capacity Statistics 2026 (published March 31, 2026) puts global wind additions at 158.7 GW for 2025, the lowest of the three trackers, with China alone contributing 119.4 GW -- about three-quarters of the total.
- GWEC's Global Wind Report 2026 (published April 20, 2026) counts a record-breaking 165 GW added in 2025 (155.3 GW onshore + 9.3 GW offshore), a 40% jump over the prior year.
- Wood Mackenzie's April 2026 analysis puts the year's additions highest, at 176 GW -- a 45% year-on-year increase -- with China becoming the first market ever to install more than 100 GW of wind capacity in a single year.
- The roughly 17 GW spread between the lowest and highest counts is itself larger than the total 2025 wind capacity additions of every country except China and the United States, illustrating how much a single methodology choice can move the global total.
Delta Engine result
↔ Divergence Detected — Δ 0.0765 (threshold 0.05)
- IRENA T5 88
- Wood Mackenzie T2 90
- GWEC T0 95
Evidence quality
avg 58.3 · min 25 · max 95 · spread 70