Europe has installed 4,2 gigawatts of offshore wind fields in 2023, a record level of power, up 40% compared to a difficult 2022, the sector's professional association WindEurope said on Thursday January 18.
“Things are improving for offshore wind power in Europe”, welcomes the group, with “several positive developments which allow the return of confidence of the players” in the sector.
WindEurope expects the construction of around 5 GW additional per year over the next three years, a pace which is however far from European climate and energy objectives.
The new installations for 2023 are located first in the Netherlands (the 1,5 GW “Hollandse Kust Zuid” site is now the largest in the world), in Great Britain, in France.
Some 30 billion euros worth of projects have been confirmed, a record level ensuring the start of construction on eight farms.
Among the new arrivals is Poland, where a final investment decision was taken for a first site of 1,2 GW in the Baltic Sea (the country is targeting 18 GW in 2040).
The year 2022 saw overall investments fall sharply, to 400 million euros, in the face of legal and market uncertainties, in a context of high interest rates and rising materials prices.
In 2023, several new factories have also been announced, in Poland (Vestas blades), Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain (cables, substations, etc.), allaying fears of supply bottlenecks. strangulation in the supply chain and surge of Chinese industry in Europe, the pioneering region of offshore wind.
This remains insufficient, notes WindEurope, if Europe wants to achieve its objectives (111 GW for the EU in 2030, compared to less than 20 GW installed at the end of 2023).
In the fall, the EU announced a series of support measures for the sector. As for the United Kingdom, it finally raised its ceiling price for the site allocation auctions in 2024, the previous ones not having found a candidate.
Still off the British Isles, the Danish group Ørsted announced in December the final investment decision to build the world's largest offshore wind farm, called Hornsea 3, which will have a capacity of 2,9 GW and should be completed around the end of 2027.
RWE, for its part, bought its portfolio in the Norfolk area (4,2 GW) from the Swedish Vattenfall, with the particular intention of taking over the Norfolk Boreas project (1,4 GW) in the British North Sea, suspended due to the surge costs.
