EU Adds 3 GW of Offshore Wind in 2023

Industry

January 12, 2024, by Adnan Memija

The EU has added 17 GW of new wind energy in 2023 with 3 GW coming from offshore wind farms, according to WindEurope data.

According to the WindEurope data, Germany built the most new wind capacity followed by the Netherlands and Sweden.

The Netherlands built the most new offshore wind, including the 1.5 GW Hollandse Kust Zuid – for now the world’s largest offshore wind farm.

Wind accounted for 19 per cent of all electricity produced in Europe last year, said WindEurope.

These numbers are slightly up from those in 2022 and are the most the EU has ever built in a single year, but it is well below the 30 GW a year that the EU needs to build to meet its new 2030 climate and energy security targets, WindEurope said.

The action set out in the EU Wind Power Package should deliver a significant increase in the annual build-out and strengthen Europe’s wind energy supply chain.

Crucial actions include the further simplification of permitting, improvements in the design of the auctions to build new wind farms, and public financial support for wind turbine manufacturing and key infrastructure, said WindEurope.

The amount of electricity produced from 1 GW of wind continued to grow, according to the press release. The “capacity factor” of new onshore wind farms now ranges from 30-48 per cent and new offshore wind is consistently 50 per cent, said WindEurope.