WindEurope’s Autumn Wind Energy Data shows Europe built 6.4 GW of new wind farms in the first half of 2024: 5.3 GW onshore and 1.1 GW offshore. The EU-27 built 5.7 GW of this: 4.7 GW onshore and 1 GW offshore.
Germany built the most with 1.7 GW, followed by France (1.2 GW) and Spain (876 MW). Europe now has 278 GW of wind power capacity. 242 GW of this is onshore and 35 GW offshore. The EU-27 now has 225 GW of wind: 205 GW onshore and 20 GW offshore.
Wind turbine orders are up on last year: by 11% on H1 2023 for all of Europe and by 33% for the EU. Current auction volumes are strong: EU governments awarded 19.7 GW of new wind capacity in their auctions in H1, twice as much as in H1 2023. The permitting numbers are also encouraging, notably the 5 GW new onshore permits Germany awarded in H1.
However, investment decisions to build new wind farms are down on last year. Europe took €15.4 billion of final investment decisions (FIDs) in new wind farms in H1 2024. This is less than 30% of the total FIDs taken in 2023. There are four FIDs so far this year. The new installations in H1 2024 are slightly less than expected and less than half of what was built in the whole of 2023. We now expect the EU to build 15 GW of new wind farms this year, compared to 16 GW in 2023.
Current trends and the pipeline of projects and auctions now point to the EU having 350 GW of wind energy capacity by 2030: 296 GW onshore and 54 GW offshore. The EU target is 425 GW. Today, it has 225 GW. We expect Europe to build 22 GW of new wind farms a year on average over 2024-30, with the numbers rising towards the end of the decade.
The main bottleneck now is in electricity grids. New connections are not being built or permitted fast enough. There are often constraints in the availability of grid equipment. The permitting of new wind farms remains an issue in many countries.
