EU built record new wind farms last year but lags green energy goal

European Union countries built 17 gigawatts of new wind power farms in 2023, the most for any year so far, but still not enough to reach its renewable energy goal, industry data showed on Friday (12 January).

The milestone showed how Europe’s energy transition is gathering speed, yet more is needed. At least 37GW of new wind power should be added per year to deliver the EU’s 2030 renewable energy target, by Brussels’ own estimates.

The EU built and connected to the grid 14GW of onshore wind power and 3GW offshore last year, exceeding the 16GW added in 2022, industry association WindEurope said.

Germany built the most new wind capacity followed by the Netherlands and Sweden.

The amount of electricity produced from each GW of wind power installed also continued to grow, with the “capacity factor” of new onshore wind farms now ranging between 30-48%, and new offshore wind consistently reaching 50%, WindEurope said.

Yet, Europe’s wind power sector has struggled in the last few years due to factors including soaring inflation, increased competition and bottlenecks getting permits for projects.

“Things were very bad indeed on the permitting. Now they are improving significantly,” WindEurope CEO Giles Dickson told Reuters, citing new EU rules to slash permit waiting times that helped increase the number of permits issued last year.

“This gives us optimism now that the improvement that we started to see last year is going to be sustained, that we can look forward to an increase in the volumes of new wind that are built,” he added.

Wind energy produced 19% of EU electricity last year, helping the bloc generate 44% of its total power from renewable sources, according to analysis by the Fraunhofer Institute.

The European Commission also launched a package of measures in October to boost Europe’s wind sector, including more financial support for wind industry suppliers through the European Investment Bank and changes to green energy auctions that could favour local manufacturers.

The IEA estimates that Europe will build 23 GW a year of new wind over 2024-28.

Cover photo: The EU built and connected to the grid 14GW of onshore wind power and 3GW offshore last year, exceeding the 16GW added in 2022, industry association WindEurope said. [Photo credit: Animaflora PicsStock / Shutterstock]