Europe wind installations grow 4% in 2022

Europe’s gross 19.1 gigawatts (GW) of new wind power installations last year represented a 4% rise from 2021, according to a WindEurope report on Tuesday.

Wind energy in Europe in 2022 and the outlook for 2023–2027 showed that 16.1 GW of new installations were in the EU–27.

Onshore wind accounted for 87% of new installations at 16.7 GW in Europe plus the UK, while onshore installations in the EU-27 accounted for 92%.

New offshore wind installations in Europe amounted to 2.5 GW last year.

‘Europe’s wind farms generated 487 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity in 2022. This covered 17% of the electricity demand in the EU-27 plus the UK,’ the report highlighted.

– Investment in new wind farms falls in 2022

According to the report, Europe announced €17 billion ($17.9 billion) of new investments, covering 12 GW of new capacity that will be built this year and beyond.

This represents less than half the amount invested in 2021.

‘The anticipated capacity factors of the new onshore wind farms built in Europe in 2022 is 30-45% and around 50% for offshore wind,’ the report said.

The average power rating of new onshore turbines was 4.1 megawatts (MW) and 8 MW for offshore wind.

Germany installed the most wind power capacity in 2022 at 2.7 GW, 88% of which was from onshore wind power.

Sweden and Finland had 2.4 GW of installed wind power capacity each, France had 2.1 GW, and the UK and Spain each had 1.7 GW.

Furthermore, Denmark and Ireland had the highest proportions of wind energy in their electricity mixes, at 55% and 36%, respectively.

Wind met more than 20% of the electricity demand in five countries: the UK at 28%, Germany at 26%, Portugal at 26%, and Spain and Sweden each at 25%.

Despite the Russian-Ukraine conflict, which rendered 75% of its total installed capacity of 1.8 GW inactive, Ukraine installed 83 MW of new capacity.

• Europe’s gross 19.1 gigawatts (GW)