It notes that 2023 also saw a major political turnaround for the EU, which 26 governments endorsed in the European Wind Charter. WindEurope’s annual statistics and seven-year outlook reports that the EU installed a record amount of 16.2 GW new wind energy capacity in 2023, 79% of which was onshore. And more than 1 GW came from the repowering of old turbines. Renewables, in total, accounted for 42% of the electricity mix. Total electricity generation from wind in the EU was 466 TWh in 2023, up from 412 TWh in 2022.

The report includes an outlook for new wind installations over the 2024–2030 period, based on the project pipeline, announced investments, permitting data and government auction volumes. WindEurope forecasts that the EU will install 29 GW/y on average over the period, bringing 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. Over the period 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, predicts the study.

‘Things are looking up again for wind in Europe’, says WindEurope CEO Giles Dickson. ‘Permitting has improved thanks to new EU rules. Investments are up. Record volumes are being auctioned and built. And governments have committed with the Wind Power Package and Charter to strengthen Europe’s wind energy industry. The industry in turn is recovering. 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 wind farms.’

UK potential

Meanwhile, the UK government is gearing up to launch this year’s contracts for difference (CfD) auction (Allocation Round 6, AR6) later this month. Following the failure of last year’s CfD auction to secure any bids at all from the offshore wind sector as the £44/MWh strike price was not deemed high enough to make projects financially viable, the government has increased the maximum strike price by 66% for offshore wind projects, to £73/MWh, and by 52% for floating offshore wind projects, from £116/MWh to £176/MWh. It has also announced that £1bn is to be set aside for the auction, triple the support package offered last year, of which a record £800mn will be allocated to support new offshore wind farms.

According to RenewableUK’s latest EnergyPulse Insights offshore wind report, the UK government has the potential to double the country’s offshore wind capacity if it gave consent to the 14.9 GW of projects that are eligible to bid in the round. However, it is important to note that being eligible does not mean that developers of projects will actually choose to bid, just that they have the potential to do so.

The report notes that the UK currently has 14.7 GW of fully operational offshore wind which generates 14% of the country’s entire electricity needs. It also shows that a further 5.2 GW are already under construction in UK waters, and nearly 45 GW is forecast to be fully operational by the end of 2030.

In other UK wind news, up to 5,300 new jobs and up to £1.4bn could be generated for the UK economy by galvanising the supply chain and infrastructure opportunities arising from the development of new floating wind farms in the Celtic Sea off the coast of South Wales and south-west England, according to new research commissioned by The Crown Estate. The first three floating wind farms planned for development will be able to generate up to 4.5 GW of electricity. As the first in the UK outside Scotland, they mark a new phase for offshore wind in England and Wales, and will be some of the largest such projects in the world, says The Crown Estate.

Meanwhile, a new report from the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult calls for increased investment in the supply chain skills needed to support development of the UK’s floating offshore wind sector.

Global offshore wind capacity could grow fivefold by 2030

RenewableUK’s EnergyPulse Insights offshore wind study also reports that global operational offshore wind capacity has reached over 70 GW for the first time (70.2 GW), up from 62.3 GW at this time last year, a 12.5% increase in 12 months. The top countries in terms of installed capacity are China (34.7 GW), the UK (14.7 GW), and Germany (8.3 GW).  

The global total pipeline of projects in all stages of development (operational, under construction, consented, in the planning system or in early development) now stands at 1,078 GW across 1,461 projects in 41 countries; China is top with 195.5 GW, the UK second at 99.5 GW and Sweden third with 85 GW.

The report forecasts that total global capacity could reach over 340 GW by the end of 2030 – almost a fivefold increase from today, with 46% of this capacity in Chinese waters.