Statistics of wind energy in Europe in 2023 and outlook to 2030

Annually, Wind Europe, the wind energy industry association in Europe, publishes a report that collects the data and statistics of the sector in 2023 and makes some future forecasts.

Personally, I enjoy these reports a lot, as they allow getting a global idea of how the sector is in terms of generation, installations, turbine sizes, auctions, repowering… and also to see the comparison between countries, both onshore and offshore. So, let’s go through the main highlights and some conclusions that the report gathers.

Europe installed a total of 18.3 GW of new wind power capacity in 2023, of which 79% (14.5 GW) was onshore and the remaining 21% (3.8 GW) offshore. If we only consider the EU-27, a new record of 16.1 GW was established, with 13.3 GW onshore and 2.8 GW offshore.

The countries that installed the most wind power were:

1. Germany 3,567 MW Onshore / 329 MW Offshore
2. Netherlands 527 MW Onshore / 1,906 MW Offshore
3. Sweden 1,973 MW Onshore / 0 MW Offshore
4. France 1,385 MW Onshore / 360 MW Offshore
5. United Kingdom 553 MW Onshore / 833 MW Offshore
6. Finland 1,278 MW Onshore / 0 MW Offshore
7. Poland 1,157 MW Onshore / 0 MW Offshore
8. Spain 762 MW Onshore / 2 MW Offshore
9. Greece 543 MW Onshore / 0 MW Offshore
10. Italy 525 MW Onshore / 0 MW Offshore

It is expected that the European Union will install 200 GW during the period 2024-2030, with an average of 29 GW annually. To meet the EU’s objectives, 33 GW annually would be needed.

The countries with the highest percentage of wind energy in their electricity generation mix were:

1. Denmark 56%
2. Ireland 36%
3. Germany 31%
4. United Kingdom 29%
5. Netherlands 27%
6. Spain 27%
7. Sweden 26%
8. Portugal 26%
9. Lithuania 21%
10. Greece 20%

Other interesting data:

• Wind energy generated 466 TWh of electricity in the EU in 2023, covering 19% of electricity demand.
• The capacity factors for new onshore wind farms built in Europe in 2023 ranged between 30% and 45%. For offshore, they were around 50%.
• The average power of new onshore wind turbines installed in 2023 was 4.5 MW, representing an increase from 4.1 MW in 2022. For offshore, the average power was 9.7 MW, compared to 8.0 MW in 2022.
• Despite the war, Ukraine installed 146 MW of new wind power capacity. However, 71% of its 1.9 GW installed capacity is currently out of service.
• Europe dismantled 736 MW of wind power capacity in 2023. At the same time, it commissioned 1.5 GW of repowered capacity.
• Despite the ambitious target of 59 GW of installed wind power in Spain by 2030 set by the PNIEC, WindEurope estimates that only around 40 GW will be reached. According to calculations, this would entail approximately 16 GW of new installations and 6 GW of decommissionings.

Link to the full report on the Wind Europe website

Sergio Fdez Munguía