REM: EU wind installations up 33% in 2022 despite challenging supply chain

The EU installed 15 GW of new wind farms in 2022, according to preliminary data from WindEurope. That’s 33% more than 2021.

This increase is “encouraging,” given the challenges faced in 2022. But Europe must continue to simplify permitting and invest heavily in its wind energy supply chain to deliver its energy and climate targets, said the trade association.

In 2022, Germany, Sweden and Finland were leading the way, followed by Spain and France. As much as 90% of the new wind capacity was onshore, almost all of them on greenfield sites. There was not much repowering.

Governments are missing a trick here: on average repowering triples the output of wind farm with one quarter fewer turbines, said WindEurope.

Last year was a difficult for the wind energy supply chain. Inflation hit Europe’s turbine manufacturers and suppliers hard. They now face a range of overlapping challenges: inflation in key inputs and commodities, dysfunctional trade flows and bottlenecks in the sourcing of some materials and components plus poor auction design in some countries.