Europe to add more than 144GW of wind power capacity over the next decade
According to a report from MAKE, Europe could add more than 144GW of wind power capacity over the next ten years. Last year, seven European countries, including Germany, Sweden and Finland, set new growth records in the wind power industry. In 2014, wind power capacity grew to 13GW, up 7.7% from the following year, and in 2015 wind power capacity is expected to grow 8.7% from 2014, due to favourable economic policies. The report also suggests that the growth of the offshore wind industry is instrumental in ﻿reaching European renewable energy targets.

New predictions from MAKE suggest Europe could see more than 144 GW of new wind power capacity commissioned in the next decade.

According to MAKE, this prediction is following on from a 13 GW, or 7.7% market growth in 2014 compared to the year previously, with Germany, Sweden, France, Turkey, Austria, Ireland, and Finland all setting new growth records. The European wind market is expected to grow another 8.7% in 2015 due to a need to take advantage of certain policies, which MAKE believes will lead to record numbers. Beyond that, MAKE is predicting the European wind market to expand more than 144 GW over the years 2015 to 2024.

While Northern Europe is predicted to account for 61% of that figure, MAKE expects Germany to account for 42%, or 37 GW. The UK and France are next in line with 15.4 GW and 13.2 GW respectively, as Northern Europe will likely reach annual demand of more than 10 GW by 2020.

In Southern Europe, MAKE is estimating 26% of all new European wind power capacity, with Eastern Europe accounting for the remaining 13%.

Turning offshore, MAKE notes that the offshore market throughout Europe accounted for 13%, or 1.6 GW, of all new grid connected capacity in 2014, with another 3 GW expected to be connected to the grid in 2015, which will increase to more than 4 GW annually by the end of the ten-year period, representing what MAKE believes to be a “key driver of growth in Europe” for the wind industry.

In addition to the natural growth of the offshore wind industry, MAKE points to 2020 renewable energy targets as being instrumental in driving European wind growth. However, the post-2020 dropoff being predicted across the industry is at least partly the fault of the lack of binding national targets, in favor of 2030 targets for the EU as a whole.

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