Germany builds the most wind turbines in the EU
According to the German Wind Energy Association, the expansion of wind power in Germany is progressing quite well – but in Europe as a whole rather less so.
Brussels (dpa) – According to the association WindEurope, more wind turbines were built in Germany last year than in any other European country. With new installations on land and at sea totalling more than 4 gigawatts (GW), Germany is in the lead, followed by the United Kingdom (around 1.9 GW), France (around 1.7 GW) and Finland (1.4 GW).
The association says that around 13 gigawatts of capacity were newly built across the EU last year – meaning that there were fewer new installations than expected.
The reasons for this are said to include grid bottlenecks, ongoing problems with licences in many countries and difficult financial conditions. Restrictions on harbour capacity and the availability of ships also hindered the expansion of offshore wind power, according to the association.
WindEurope says that Europe now has a total of 285 gigawatts of wind power capacity – but 30 gigawatts per year are needed to achieve the international community’s energy targets by 2030. The association expects 186 GW of new wind energy capacity to be installed between 2025 and 2030.