New statistics show that despite only two small onshore wind turbines being installed in England last year, new UK offshore wind capacity hit an annual record.
According to research from RenewableUK, more than ten times as much UK offshore wind capacity was installed in 2022 than was built onshore.
The analysis by the group’s EnergyPulse data analysts revealed that a total of 3511MW of new wind capacity was added last year – enough to power more than 3.4 million UK homes a year.
Three major offshore wind projects went fully operational in 2022, adding 3193 MW of new capacity, powering more than 3.2 million homes.
This is a record annual high, smashing the previous record of 2,125MW set in 2018, and a significant increase on 2021, when just one offshore project (48MW) went fully operational.
Ten new onshore wind projects were installed in 2022, adding 318MW and powering a further 209,000 homes.
Six of the new projects were built in Scotland, providing nearly all the new capacity (314MW).
Beyond Scotland, one project went operational in Wales (2.5MW), one project in England (two turbines, 1MW in total) and two in Northern Ireland (0.5MW).
This represents less new UK onshore capacity than was built in 2021, when 370MW was added (295MW in Scotland, 75MW in Northern Ireland and none in England or Wales), although deployment increased in Scotland last year compared to the year before.
The industry body is calling for planning reforms to be implemented as soon as possible to enable more projects to go ahead onshore and offshore – even though a record amounts of new offshore capacity went live last year.
RenewableUK’s Chief Executive Dan McGrail said: “The latest figures show we made terrific progress in installing a record amount of new offshore wind capacity last year. However, we still need to ensure that the glacial pace of the consenting process is stepped up significantly to stay on track for the quadrupling of offshore capacity that the Government wants to see by 2030 as a key step in strengthening the UK’s energy security.”