T眉rkiye has moved up eight places to rank third in Europe for onshore wind energy capacity increase, adding 1.3 gigawatts (GW) of capacity last year, according to data published by WindEurope.
Last year, Europe installed a total of 16.4 GW in wind energy capacity with 13.8 GW coming from onshore wind farms, WindEurope's recent annual report revealed.
Germany added the highest amount of onshore wind capacity to the grid, with 3.2 GW, followed by Finland with 1.4 GW, T眉rkiye with 1.3 GW, Spain with 1.1 GW, and France with 1 GW of capacity increase.
Capacity installations in the EU reached 12.9 GW during this period, with nearly 90% of this capacity coming from onshore wind farms.
Wind farms contributed 475 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity to the EU's power generation, which corresponds to about 19% of the EU's total electricity demand.
By the end of last year, Europe's total wind energy installed capacity reached 285 GW, with 248 GW from onshore wind farms and 37 GW from offshore wind farms.
The expected capacity factor for onshore wind farms built last year was between 30% and 45%, while the capacity factor for offshore wind farms was around 50%.
- More wind energy investments to come
WindEurope projects that around 186 GW of new wind energy projects will be implemented in Europe between 2025 and 2030.
During this period, 75% of the new investments in Europe are expected to be in onshore wind farms.
Additionally, the average turbine capacity for onshore wind energy last year was 4.6 megawatts (MW), while offshore wind turbines had an average capacity of 10.1 MW.
In turbine installations, Germany led with 644 turbines, followed by France with 387 turbines and T眉rkiye with 272 turbines.
By Gulsen Cagatay
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr