2014 European statistics
FEBRUARY 2015
a cura di EWEA | European Wind Energy Association
11,791.4 MW of wind power capacity (worth between €13.1bn and €18.7bn) was installed in the EU during 2014, an increase of 3.8% compared to 2013 annual installations.
Wind power is the generating technology with the highest rate for new installations in 2014, accounting for 43.7% of total 2014 power capacity installations, 12 percentage points higher than during the previous year.
Renewable power installations accounted for 79.1% of new installations during 2014: 21.3 GW of a total 26.9 GW of new power capacity, up from 72% the previous year.
There is now 128.8 GW of installed wind power capacity in the EU: approximately 120.6 GW onshore and just over 8 GW offshore.
The EU total installed power capacity increased by 14.8 GW net in 2014 to 910.1 GW, with wind power increasing by 11.4 GW net and reaching a share of total installed generation capacity of 14.1%.
Since 2000, 29.4% of new capacity installed has been wind power, 56.2% renewables and 91.1% renewables and gas combined.
The EU power sector continues its move away from fuel oil and coal with both technologies continuing to decommission more than they install.
Annual installations of wind power have increased over the last 14 years, from 3.2 GW in 2000, to 11.8 GW in 2014 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.8%.
A total of 128.8 GW is now installed in the European Union, an increase in installed cumulative capacity of 9.7% compared to the previous year.
Germany remains the EU country with the largest installed capacity followed by Spain, the UK and France. There are 15 EU countries with gigawatt-level wind power capacities installed, including two relatively new EU countries (Poland and Romania), and eight EU countries each have more than 4 GW of installed capacity.
59.5% of all new installations in 2014 were in just two countries (Germany and the UK), an increased concentration compared to 2013 (46% of total installations). 77.2% of all new installations were concentrated in the top four countries (Germany, the UK, Sweden and France).
2014 shows the negative impact of market, regulatory and political uncertainty sweeping across Europe. Destabilised legislative frameworks for wind energy are undermining investments.
A number of previously large markets such as Denmark, Spain and Italy saw their rates of wind energy installations decrease significantly in 2014, by 90.4%, 84.3% and 75.4% respectively.
Offshore wind saw almost 1.5 GW installed in 2014, 5.3% less than 2013.
The wind power capacity installed by the end of 2014 would, in a normal wind year, produce 284 TWh of electricity, enough to cover 10.2% (of which 1% from offshore wind) of the EU’s electricity consumption – up from 8% the year before.
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