Despite global uncertainty, 2023 was a record year for wind power in Europe

By agreenerlifeagreenerworld on February 29, 2024 • ( 1 Comment )

By Anders Lorenzen

Analysis by WindEurope, Europe’s wind power industry group, reveals a record-breaking year for European wind power when it comes to investments in the industry as well as installing new capacity.

The report revealed a significant comeback. The wind sector having struggled in 2022 with soaring inflation, interest rates and the volatile energy markets as a result of the war in Ukraine.

In 2023 the investments made in offshore wind projects in Europe jumped up to €30 billion, a significant recovery from the just €0.4 billion invested in 2022. In addition, European Union (EU) member states also installed a record-high 16.2 gigawatts (GW) of new wind power capacity with 80% being onshore.

The policies enacted by the EU to speed up project permits, as well as proposals to help wind projects access finances and index prices in national renewable energy auctions, have been a contributing factor to the positive year the industry enjoyed in 2023.

Clean energy targets within reach

WindEurope believes that its analysis is a huge boost, that will make it much more likely for the EU to achieve its clean energy targets.

In Germany and Spain, the improvements, compared to 2022, were significant as they each permitted 70% more onshore wind than the previous year.

This is welcome news for the industry after many global wind power companies endured a difficult 2023.

Moving forward, the industry group expects a positive pipeline – predicting Europe, on average, to install a yearly wind power capacity of 29GW to reach a 393 GW wind power capacity by 2030, which is just shy of the EU target of 425GW.

Commenting on the analysis, WindEurope’s Chief Policy Officer, Pierre Tardieu said “This puts us within striking distance of actually delivering the 2030 wind targets, which are extremely ambitious.”

However, that does not mean there are no risks. The industry group cautions against the sluggish investments both in upgrading power grids and in the necessary infrastructure to handle the fast-growing share of renewable energy capacity.