The European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) has released a report forecasting slower than expected growth in Europe’s wind power sector by 2020, citing a financial downturn and regulatory instability in key markets as causes for the trend.
In findings released this week, EWEA predicts European Union countries to install 192.4 GW of wind energy by 2020 – below previous 2011 estimates of 230GW by 2020. Despite the slump, wind power capacity will expand by 64 per cent in the next seven years and up to €124 billion in wind farm investments across the EU are expected by 2020, creating 100,000 additional jobs.
By 2020, wind power will generate 442 TWh of electricity, supplying nearly 15 per cent of Europe’s electricity.
EWEA reviewed its 2020 scenarios in light of new developments in economic activity, energy consumption and changes to renewable energy policies across the EU.
It found that Europe’s overall energy demand would not rise above 2008 levels until 2027, impacting the pace of wind power uptake. While some nations were shrugging off the burden of the global financial crisis, retroactive and retrospective changes to subsidies for wind energy projects in key markets would continue to curtail growth in the sector.
Although the rate of installations revised over the forecast period, the report noted this would not necessarily affect Europe’s 20 per cent renewable energy target, because of demand for electricity would also fall:
“As the 20% target is a consumption target, and with consumption being lower than expected, meeting the target with fewer installed MW producing fewer TWh is feasible.”
Justin Wilkes, deputy chief executive officer of the European Wind Energy Association, said: “A cocktail of regulatory uncertainty, ongoing climate and energy discussions at EU level and rapidly evolving national frameworks has contributed to these new scenarios.”
“However, while regulatory stability is still recovering in Europe, onshore markets such as Germany, France, United Kingdom and Poland will remain key for wind power installations,” Wilkes added.
