WindEurope’s annual statistics and seven-year outlook show that the EU wind energy target for 2030 is within reach with things looking up for the sector.
The organisation said this is mainly due to improvements in permitting and a rebound in investments. Last year also saw a major political turnaround for the EU’s Wind Power Package which 26 Governments then endorsed in the European Wind Charter.
“Things are looking up again for wind in Europe. Permitting has improved thanks to new EU rules. Investments are up. Record volumes are being auctioned and built. The industry in turn is recovering,” said Giles Dickson, CEO, WindEurope.
”Europe’s wind supply chain is returning to profit and building the new factories needed to deliver the EU’s targets. We’re now confident that we can get close to the EU goal that wind is 35% of electricity by 2030, up from 19% today - provided Europe accelerates the build-out of grids to connect all the new windfarms.”
Ramping up capacity
The European Union installed a record amount of 16.2 GW new wind energy capacity in 2023. Germany installed the most new capacity followed by the Netherlands and Sweden.
The share of wind in total EU electricity consumption in 2023 was 19%. Another 8% came from solar. Renewables in total were 42% of the electricity mix.
WindEurope’s report includes an outlook for new wind installations over the period 2024-30, based on the project pipeline, announced investments, permitting data and Government auction volumes.
It forecasts that the EU will install 29 GW a year on average from 2024-30. This will bring the EU’s installed wind capacity to 393 GW in 2030, compared to the 425 GW needed to deliver Europe’s climate and energy targets.
From 2024-2030 two-thirds of new installations will continue to be onshore. But offshore wind installations will rapidly pick up towards the end of the decade. In 2030 new offshore installations will be almost the same as new onshore installations.
Closely related to the market picking up, is the political outlook on wind energy which changed in Europe in 2023.
The EU and national Governments recognised that Europe’s wind industry was struggling and needed urgent support.
The Package and Charter commits national Governments to support the European wind industry by improving auction design: fully indexing prices so that revenues reflect costs; tightening pre-qualification criteria to raise the bar on what sort of turbines can be built in Europe; and giving clearer visibility on auction schedules to volumes so the industry can plan better.
It also commits the EU Commission to support the wind industry through the Innovation Fund and the European Investment Bank to offer counter-guarantees to support equipment sales.
In addition, the recently-agreed EU Net-Zero Industry Act (NZIA) now enshrines in law the need to tighten pre-qualification criteria and sets an ambitious target of 36 GW a year for the manufacturing of wind turbines in Europe.
But obstacles still remain - the report says that the biggest threat now to the accelerated expansion of wind is the timely expansion of Europe’s onshore and offshore electricity grids.
To increase annual wind installations from 16 GW in the EU last year to 29 GW pa on average up to 2030, Europe needs to urgently accelerate the build-out of new and optimised electricity grids.
Grid connection queues are delaying the timely connection of new windfarms. Hundreds of GWs of new windfarms are currently waiting for their grid connection.
Delays in the build-out of onshore and offshore grid connections put the timely commissioning of new windfarms at risk. In Germany authorities recently announced that up to 6 GW of offshore wind capacity are affected by grid connection delays. The affected windfarms will now come online with a delay of up to two years.
WindEurope said that the EU has fully grasped the issue with its Action Plan on Grids. Implementing this Plan must be a top energy priority for the current and incoming EU Commission - and for all national Governments.
As well as building out the grid, Europe also needs to invest more in ports and other transport infrastructure.
Read the full report
