Wind energy in Europe: 2022 Statistics and the outlook for 2023-2027

Back

Overview

Europe installed 19 GW (16 GW in the EU-27) of new wind capacity in 2022. This is significantly less what the EU should be building to be on track to deliver its 2030 Climate and Energy goals.

87% of the new wind installations in Europe last year were onshore wind. Sweden, Finland, Germany, and France built the most onshore wind. Europe now has 255 GW of wind capacity.

We expect Europe to install 129 GW of new wind farms over the period 2023-2027, and the EU-27 to install 98 GW of that. Three quarters of the new capacity additions over 2023-27 will be onshore. We expect the EU to build 20 GW of new wind farms a year on average over 2023-2027. The EU should be building over 30 GW a year of new wind on average to meet its 2030 targets.

Findings

1

In 2022 new wind installations in Europe amounted to 19.1 GW (16.7 GW onshore and 2.5 GW offshore). Despite the challenging economic environment and supply chain difficulties, this was a record year for installations in Europe with an increase of 4% compared with the previous year. However, installations fell short of our realistic expectations scenario from 2021 by 12% and were well below the rates requited to meet Europe’s climate and environment goals.

2

Germany, Sweden, and Finland built the most onshore wind. Almost half the offshore installations were in the UK, and France installed its first large offshore wind farm.

3

We expect Europe to install 129 GW of new wind farms over the period 2023-2027, and the EU-27 to install 98 GW of that. Three quarters of the new capacity additions over 2023-27 will be onshore. We expect the EU to build 20 GW of new wind farms a year on average over 2023-2027. The EU should be building over 30 GW a year of new wind on average to meet its 2030 targets.

4

Wind energy met a record 17% of demand across the EU-27+UK, an increase of 2% from 2021. Wind conditions, especially in northern Europe, were significantly better and coupled with strong installations in Sweden and Finland particularly, generation in the EU-27 + UK was up more than 9% compared with 2021.

5

Wind energy generation in Europe has been growing steadily from 370 TWh in 2018 to 489 TWh in 2022, with one anomalous year in 2021 when generation was lower than in 2020. Over the same period, electricity demand has fallen from 2,960 TWh in 2018 to 2,830 TWh in 2022. In part this was the result of lockdowns from the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and the war in Ukraine in 2022.