WindEurope has warned the pace of wind installation is too slow for the EU economy to reach its climate-neutral targets.
Europe installed 14.7GW of new wind capacity in 2020, 6% less than in 2019 and 19% less than what the representative body expected pre-COVID.
The EU27 countries installed 10.5GW of turbines and 80% of the new wind installations were onshore.
Wind accounted for 16% of the electricity consumed in 2020 by these nations and the UK, its Wind energy in Europe – 2020 Statistics and outlook 2021-2025 report found.
The Netherlands installed the most wind capacity in 2020, most of it offshore wind. Norway built the most onshore wind, with Spain and France not far behind. Germany’s new installations were its lowest since 2010.
WindEurope expects Europe to install 105GW of new wind farms over 2021-25 provided Governments deliver on the promises they’ve made.
The EU27 will install 75GW of this at a rate of 15GW per year.
The EU needs to install 18GW per year to deliver its existing wind targets from the National Energy and Climate Plans.
WindEurope expects onshore wind to make up 72% of the new installations with 76GW.
It also expects 29GW of new offshore wind over the next five years, marking almost a doubling of the annual installation rate from 3GW to 5.8GW.
WindEurope warned if governments don’t address permitting issues, fail to put in place effectives strategies for repowering and implement new restrictions on the free movement of goods and people due to the pandemic, then Europe will install less than 80GW over 2021-25.
It expects the UK to install the most new wind during this period with 18GW of new capacity predicted, most of it offshore.
Germany is slated to install a similar amount, most of it onshore.
France (12 GW), Sweden (7 GW), and the Netherlands (6 GW) will provide the next highest contributions respectively, WindEurope forecasts.
It added that about 9.4GW of existing capacity could be decommissioned over the next five years and expects only 2.4GW of this to be repowered (leading to 4.4 GW of repoweredcapacity).
The remaining 7GW will be fully decommissioned and removed from the system.