Achieving the EU’s climate goals requires a large-scale development of installed wind capacity, with an expected increase from 204 GW in 2022 to more than 500 GW in 2030, the European Commission announced on the occasion of the presentation of a plan to support European wind energy. energy industry. The EU’s goal is to get at least 42.5% of its energy from renewable sources by 2030, with ambitions to reach 45%.

The action plan is based on six main directions

Accelerate deployment with increased predictability and a faster authorization process.

• Wind installations added in 2022 provided a record capacity of 16 GW, a 47% increase over 2021. However, this is significantly less than the 37 GW/year needed to meet the EU’s 2030 renewable energy target. The Commission is launching the Accele-RES initiative together with Member States to ensure the rapid implementation of the revised EU rules on renewable energy, with a greater focus on the digitization of authorization processes and technical assistance to Member States.
• In addition, Member States are encouraged to increase the visibility of the project backlog through wind commitments, transparent auction calendars and long-term planning. Finally, the Commission will support the necessary development of electricity networks through a Networks Action Plan later this year.

Improving the design of tenders.

• Building on the proposal for a regulation on the promotion of net zero emissions industry and the reform of the organization of the electricity market, the Commission will support Member States in improving auctions through well-designed criteria and targets that reward equipment with higher added value and ensure that projects are completed in full and on time. Outside the EU, Global Gateway projects will make wider use of strategic procurement standards. The action plan also includes a cyber security risk assessment.

Access to finance.

• To accelerate investment and financing of wind energy production in Europe, the Commission will facilitate access to EU funding, notably through the Innovation Fund, while the European Investment Bank (EIB) will provide de-risking guarantees. The Commission also encourages Member States to make full use of the flexibility offered by the amended Temporary Crisis and Transitional Framework for State aid measures to support wind energy production in the EU.

Fair and competitive international environment. To ensure that the wind energy sector can operate on a level playing field, the Commission is closely monitoring potential unfair trade practices that benefit foreign wind energy producers and will continue to use trade agreements to facilitate access to external markets, while promoting the adoption of EU and international standards for the sector . The Commission will also work with investors to identify and remove barriers to investment.

Skills

• The Broad-Scale Renewable Energy Skills Partnership will be a key forum to drive skills development projects. Through sectoral net-zero regulation, the Commission will also facilitate the launch of European sectoral net-zero vocational skills academies, including an academy dedicated to the wind energy sector, designed to support Member States’ actions to improve and retrain workers. The academies will develop content and learning materials and aim to train 100,000 students within three years of establishment.

Involvement of industry and obligations of member states.

• The Commission will work with Member States and the wind energy industry to develop a European Wind Energy Charter that will improve the conditions to support the competitiveness of the European wind energy industry.

A vision of offshore wind energy

Offshore wind energy is expected to make a significant contribution to the EU’s climate and energy goals in the coming years. Building on the Offshore Renewable Energy Strategy 2020, Member States recently agreed ambitious new offshore renewable energy targets for 2050, with intermediate targets for 2030 and 2040 for each of the EU’s five sea basins.

In 2022, the total installed offshore capacity of the EU-27 was 16.3 GW. This means that to close the gap between the 111 GW capacity set by Member States and the 2022 capacity, we need to install an average of almost 12 GW/year, which is 10 times more than the 1.2 GW new capacity installed ​last year

The Commission sets out additional measures to: strengthen network infrastructure and regional cooperation, speed up the authorization process, ensure integrated maritime spatial planning, strengthen infrastructure resilience, support research and innovation, and develop supply chains and skills.