Cumulative wind energy capacity of 323 gigawatts (GW) could be installed in the EU by 2030, 253 GW onshore and 70 GW offshore, as per the central scenario of WindEurope’s Wind Energy in Europe: Scenarios for 2030 report last week.
The report highlights the social and economic impacts of three possible scenarios for wind energy capacity installations in 2030 - low, medium and high.
It underlined that with its central scenario; wind energy could produce 888 terawatts-hours of electricity, equivalent to 30 percent of the EU’s power demand.
In the low scenario, 256.4 GW of wind capacity by 2030 is predicted, 207 GW onshore and 49 GW offshore, producing 21.6 percent of the EU’s power demand by 2030.
The high scenario, which assumes favorable market and policy conditions, including the achievement of a 35 percent EU renewable energy target, forecasts that 397 GW of wind energy capacity will be installed in the EU by 2030, 298.5 GW onshore and 99 GW offshore.
This would be 23 percent more capacity than in the central scenario and two and a half times more capacity than currently installed in the EU.
Based on the central scenario, "the amount [323 GW] would be more than double the capacity installed at the end of 2016 [160 GW]," the report read. In addition, the wind power industry is set to invest €239 billion by 2030 and provide employment to 569,000 people.
(Anadolu Agency)
