Europe’s Wind Farm Network Guide

Which European Country Holds The Largest Wind Power Construction?

In 2023, the United Kingdom held Europe's largest wind power construction at around 8 gigawatts. Finland and Sweden ranked second and third where 3.88 and 3.69 gigawatts of new wind capacity were being built. Spain held by far the largest solar power capacity under construction in Europe.

87% of the new wind installations in Europe in 2022 were onshore. Sweden, Finland, Germany, and France lead those numbers and in 2023, Europe had 255GW of wind capacity.

From 2023 until 2027, it is expected that Europe will be installing 129 GW of new wind farms, and the EU-27 to install 98GW of that according to Wind Europe.

How Much Wind Power Was Produced In Europe In 2021 and 2022?

Europe’s wind farm network generated 504.65 TWh in 2021, according to the latest full-year numbers published in BP’s Statistical Review of World Energy.

Germany was by far and away the biggest contributor, putting up more than a fifth of the wind power generated in Europe in 2021 with 114.TWh.

Second place went the UK with 65.02 TWh, slightly ahead of Spain’s 62.06 TWh. This is how the rest of the top ten looked…

Rank	Country	Wind power generated in 2021
1	Germany	114.65 TWh
2	United Kingdom	65.02 TWh
3	Spain	62.06 TWh
4	France	36.83 TWh
5	Italy	20.93 TWh
6	Netherlands	18.00 TWh
7	Poland	16.23 TWh
8	Denmark	16.05 TWh
9	Portugal	13.22 TWh
10	Belgium	12.00 TWh

Source: BP

How Big Is Britain’s Wind Farm Network?

In April 2023, there were 2,608 operational onshore wind farms made up of 8,871 onshore individual turbines across Great Britain, according to numbers from Renewable UK’s UK Wind Energy Database.

These land-based wind farms have the combined capacity to generate 14,427 MW of electricity a year for the national electric system.

Britain’s offshore operations are almost as effective too, with 2,652 turbines over 43 projects with the potential to generate 13,660 MW.

Together, both on- and offshore wind turbines produced 24% of UK electricity in 2020, dipping slightly to 21% in 2021 due to wind conditions.

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This is what Britain’s wind farm network looks like right now, according to Barbour ABI and the UK Government.

Click for interactive map [opens in a new window]

What Next for Europe’s Offshore Wind Farms?

Europe pumped €17bn into installing new wind farms in 2022. That sounds like plenty but that’s down 57% from the €41bn invested in 2021 and the lowest investment figure since 2009.

As such, WindEurope says the EU is only building half as many new wind turbines as it needs.

The self-styled ‘voice of the wind industry’ has called on the EU to urgently restore investor confidence and channel money into its wind energy supply chain if Europe wants to ease its reliance on Russian fossil fuels.