Last year saw a record 4.2 GW of new offshore wind farms come online in Europe, up 40% from 2022, says advocacy group Wind Europe, with €30B of confirmed investments covering an expected 9 GW in coming years.
This record comes after a drop in offshore wind investments, falling to an all-time low of €0.4B in 2022. However, this meant that projects which had to postpone their final investment decision in that time are now moving ahead.
The Netherlands, France and the U.K. installed the most new capacity. The supply chain is also seeing a turnaround, with factories announced in Poland, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain.
Europe is set to build around 5 GW of offshore wind annually over the next three years. However, says Wind Europe, this is not enough to reach its energy security targets, and countries will need to build 24 GW a year between 2027 and 2030 to reach 2030 targets. Today’s offshore wind supply chain, it added, can only produce around 7 GW each year.
