Europe invested €41bn in new wind farms in 2021, 11% less than in 2020, according to WindEurope’s annual ‘Finance and Investment Trends’ report.
However, the investments cover 24.6GW, which is a record for new capacity financed in a single year, the report said.
Most of the new wind farms financed were onshore (19.8GW), which partly explains why the amounts invested were down compared with 2020 because onshore wind is slightly cheaper than offshore, according to the report.
But the report warned that the investments are falling short of the 35GW a year of new wind the EU needs to build to meet its 2030 climate and energy security target. Eleven countries invested more than €1bn, with UK investing the most (almost all in offshore wind) followed by Germany, France, Spain, Sweden and Finland, the report said.
Spain invested the most in onshore wind.
Sweden, Finland, Poland and Lithuania all invested more in new farms than they had done in any previous year.WindEurope said that Europe’s wind supply chain could and should be building much more and that the market is only half the size it should be.
This is undermining the competitiveness of the supply chain with all of Europe’s five wind turbine manufacturers now operating at a loss, the trade body said.
WindEurope argued that to restore the health of the wind energy supply chain, the EU must continue to improve permitting, ensure a strong home market and pursue trade and industrial policies that support the sector.