Wind power in Europe is undergoing a slowdown
In the first half of 2018 Europe added 4.5 gigawatts of new wind energy capacity, according to WindEurope. As much as 3.3GW of that came from new onshore wind farms installed in such major wind energy markets as Germany (1.6GW), France (605MW) and Denmark (202MW).
Another 1.1GW worth of offshore wind farms were, meanwhile, installed in Europe with most of it in the UK (911MW), which is “striding ahead in current installations and in committing to future volumes,” the industry body says. The UK was followed by Belgium (175 MW) and Denmark (28MW).
“Germany is set to install new offshore wind in the second half of the year,” WindEnergy notes. “For the whole of 2018, we expect to see 3.3 GW new offshore wind and 10.2 GW of onshore wind. This will mean 13.5 GW of new wind capacity in total for the year.”
Good news then for wind power in Europe? That depends how you look at it.
Newly installed fresh capacity in the first half of this year is markedly down from the 6.1GW installed in the first half of last year. “We are on track for a solid year in new wind farm installations but the growth is driven by just a handful of markets,” said Pierre Tardieu, WindEurope’s Chief Policy Officer. “The figures also mask some worrying trends.”
Among the countries where wind energy this year is losing momentum is France, where a drop in new installations is likely this year because of administrative issues related to onshore wind permits. “France has installed a lot of new onshore wind this year but they haven’t issued a single new permit for onshore wind permit in the last eight months because of an administrative issue – which has also resulted in their latest auction being under-subscribed. So there’ll be a drop-off in their new build now, creating uncertainty in the supply chain,” Tardieu explained.
Germany, too, may be seeing a slowdown in new wind energy capacity after 2019-2020, partly as a result of as yet unspecified government timelines for onshore auctions. “[T]he rate of new installations has slowed down in Germany,” Tardieu said. “Other countries also need to beef up and speed up their plans on offshore wind.”
