According to statistics released by the European wind power association WindEurope, the European installed wind capacity grew by 11.3 GW in 2018 (11.7 GW added and 0.4 GW decommissioned during the year), of which 8.6 GW for onshore (77% of the total) and 2.65 GW for offshore (23%). This is a more than 30% decrease compared to 2017, which was a record year for wind capacity additions. According to WindEurope, wind capacity accounted for nearly half (48%) of the total power capacity installations in the European Union in 2018.
In 2018, 10.1 GW were commissioned in the European Union: Germany added most of the new wind power capacity (3.4 GW, including 969 MW of offshore capacity) and reached 59 GW of installed wind capacity, followed by the United Kingdom (1.9 GW, of which 1.3 GW offshore, reaching 21 GW), France (+1.6 GW onshore, reaching 15 GW) and Sweden (0.7 GW onshore, reaching 7.4 GW). 421 MW were decommissioned during the year and non-EU countries installed 1.6 GW, led by Turkey (497 MW, reaching 7.4 GW) and Norway (480 MW, reaching 1.7 GW). Overall, installed wind capacity in Europe neared 189 GW, including 179 GW in the European Union.
Investments rose by 20% to €26.7bn in 2018: offshore investments reached €10.3bn (+37%), while onshore investments hit a record level of €16.4bn (+11%). 16.7 GW of future projects reached the final investment decision (FID) stage in 2018, including 12.5 GW for onshore and 4.2 GW for offshore; this is approximately 45% higher than in 2017 in terms of capacity. Sweden led the momentum with FIDs for 3.2 GW, followed by the UK (FiDs for 2.2 GW).