European wind energy forecast to grow to 258 GW by 2022

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According to WindEurope's report ‘Wind energy outlook in Europe’, the European wind sector is predicted to grow by 87 GW to 258 GW of installed capacity, which corresponds to an annual increase of 17.4 GW. Most of the new installations will be onshore wind, with 70.4 GW to be installed compared to 16.5 GW of new offshore installations.

The growth will be aided by larger turbines, with 4MW and higher becoming the norm for onshore turbines and 8MW plus for offshore turbines.

Germany will remain the country with the most wind energy (73 GW in 2022), followed by Spain (30 GW) and the UK (26 GW). However, Germany’s share of new installations will fall from 40% on average in the last five years to 24%. On the other h...