Europe achieved record wind electricity generation in the fourth quarter of 2023; Electricity contributed 193 terawatt-hours, while coal contributed 184 terawatt-hours.

Despite the difficulties faced by the European continent in generating wind energy with regard to the high costs of workers and materials required for operation, Europe succeeded in this quarter of 2023 in increasing the contribution of wind to electricity production, compared to the same quarter in 2022, by 20%.

The following graph shows the volume of electricity production from both wind and coal in Europe:

This high percentage of the contribution of wind energy to electricity production is due to the increased focus of European countries on increasing the efficiency of pre-existing wind plants, in addition to investing in establishing new plants. The amount of investments in the field of offshore wind energy in Europe has reached a new record level. It amounted to 30 billion euros, distributed among 8 stations.

The European Union's interest in wind energy has driven these investments; This interest was represented in the "European Union Wind Energy Package", which includes 15 immediate measures to support the field of wind energy. 26 European countries signed this package, committing themselves to the rapid implementation of the measures attributed to them in the wind energy package.

Considering the amount of wind energy produced from new plants built in 2023, we will find that Europe produced 17 gigawatts of new wind plants in 2023; Which led to the contribution of wind energy to electricity production by 19%. As 14 gigawatts were obtained from onshore wind stations, and 3 gigawatts from offshore wind stations, the highest percentage in history in one year, and of course higher than the percentage for the year 2022.

Wind energy contributed 19% to electricity generation in Europe last year, solar energy contributed 8%, hydropower contributed 13%, and biomass contributed 3%.

Germany is at the forefront of the countries that contributed to reaching this percentage, followed by the Netherlands and Sweden. It is worth noting that the Netherlands produced the largest percentage of wind energy generated from the new stations, which reached 1.5 gigawatts.

We review the most prominent projects to generate wind energy in Europe in the recent period:

1. The largest renewable energy generation company in Norway, Statkraft, invested $6.6 billion in the field of hydropower and wind energy. These investments came in the form of building onshore wind farms and hydroelectric power plants, in addition to rehabilitating old dams and power plants.
   It is expected that these investments will result in doubling the Norwegian GDP from wind energy, producing 2,500 gigawatts per hour, and increasing the capacity of hydroelectric power stations by 20%, equivalent to 1.5 to 2.5 gigawatts.
2. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has allocated €100 million to the Taaleri III Wind and Solar Project Fund. This project, based in Finland, will generate 800 megawatts of renewable energy capacity in all economies in which the EBRD invests.
3. While Total Energy signed an agreement with European Energy to establish a number of marine projects in several countries, including Denmark, Finland, and Sweden.
   This agreement came in the form of the acquisition by Total Energy of shares in already existing projects, such as its acquisition of 85% of the JammerlandBugt project to generate wind energy with a capacity of up to 240 megawatts, in addition to its acquisition of 72.2% of the Lillebaelt South project to generate up to 165 MW of wind energy. It is worth noting that these two projects were announced among nine projects launched by the Danish Energy Agency last December.
4. – Both Ox2 and Ingka Investments revealed their work on the Neptunes offshore wind energy project, which aims to produce 3,100 megawatts in Sweden. The Neptunes project – whose construction could begin in late 2030 if it obtains a license from the Swedish government – consists of 207 turbines to generate Energy from wind approximately 50 km up the coast.