A total of 105.6 GW is now installed in the European Union, a growth of 12% on the previous year and similar to the growth recorded in 2011. Offshore wind accounted for 10% of total EU wind power installations in 2012, one percent more than in 2011, with 1,166 MW of new capacity grid connected, EWEA says in its annual statistics.
Despite the growth of annual wind energy installations in 2012 and cumulative capacity almost reaching 106 GW, wind energy deployment is lagging behind the objectives the EU Member States set themselves in their National Renewable Energy Action Plans (NREAPs). Comparison with the NREAPs does not take into account any subsequent changes to targets.
Interestingly, installations in 2012 were higher than EWEA’s expectations.
In 2009, the EWEA published a growth scenario that expected cumulative capacity in the EU to be 103 GW at the end of 2012. However, EWEA’s scenario reaches 230 GW of installed wind energy capacity in 2020, whereas the sum of the Member State’s NREAP’s is 213 GW. The latter suggests that whereas EWEA took a gradual approach with annual installations increasing slowly at the beginning and more rapidly towards 2020, the Member States, on the whole, “front-loaded” their trajectories.
Eighteen Member States are falling behind their wind power capacity trajectories. Of these, the furthest behind are Slovakia (-147 MW, -98%), Greece (-772 MW, -30.6%), Czech Republic (-83 MW, -24.2%), Hungary (-116 MW, -26.1%), France (-1,069 MW, -13%), Portugal (-1,075 MW, -19%). The nine other Member States are, on the other hand, above their trajectory.
Sweden is the most noteworthy with 1,336 MW more than forecast (+55%). The EU overall is lagging by almost 2 GW (-1.7%).
It is in offshore where there is the biggest discrepancy between the NREAPs and real installations. The Member States are trailing by 836 MW, -14%. Compared to EWEA’s 2009 forecast, on the other hand, onshore installations have increased faster than expected (+2,395 or +2.3%). However, offshore installations are below expectations by 307 MW or -6%.
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Offshore WIND Staff, February 8, 2013; Image: EWEA