EU wind ‘grows 6GW’ in 2017

A total of 6.1GW of new wind power capacity was installed in Europe in the first half of 2017, according to WindEurope.

Some 4.8GW of onshore wind capacity was installed in the first six months of the year, although the majority was in three countries.

Germany installed more than 2.2GW, followed by the UK with 1.2GW and France with 492MW, WindEurope said.

Deutsche Windguard said Germany installed 790 onshore turbines totalling 2281MW.

New onshore capacity in Germany is up 11% compared with the first six months of 2016, with 146 turbines totalling 167MW having been decommissioned this year.

Some 5GW of new turbines will go online in 2017 in Germany, said industry groups VDMA Power Systems and BWE expect.

WindEurope said a total of 1.3GW of new offshore capacity was installed in the first half of the year across 18 projects.

Investments in new assets hit €8.3bn, with €5.4bn in onshore and €2.9bn in offshore. Offshore investment is down from €14bn in the same period in 2016.

More than half the investments were made in Germany and there were no new offshore investments in the UK, WindEurope said.

WindEurope chief policy officer Pierre Tardieu said: “We are on track for a good year in wind capacity installations but growth is driven by a handful of markets. At least 10 EU countries have yet to install a single MW so far this year.

“On offshore, the level of finance activity is a concern. Although this won’t translate into lower installations for another few years, the industry needs clarity on volumes for the post-2020 period to maintain the current cost reduction trend.”

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