Europe confirmed a record amount of €26.3bn of investments in new offshore wind farms in 2020, financing 7.1GW of new offshore wind and building 2.9GW of new offshore wind. Europe now has 25GW of offshore wind capacity. The EU aims to have 300 GW by 2050.

“€26bn in new investments in 2020 is a huge vote of confidence in offshore wind. Investors see that offshore wind is cheap, reliable, and resilient – and that governments want more of it. And these investments will create jobs and growth. Every new offshore wind turbine generates €15m of economic activity. We expect the 77,000 people working in offshore wind today in Europe to be 200,000 by 2030”, says Giles Dickson, WindEurope CEO.

Nine new offshore wind farms came online across five countries. The Netherlands connected 1.5GW and completed the development of the Borssele Wind Farm Zone. Belgium connected 706MW, the UK 483MW and Germany 219MW. Portugal completed the installation of a floating offshore wind farm, co-funded by the EU’s NER300 programme.

Europe now has 116 offshore wind farms across 12 countries, with 40 per cent of the capacity in the UK.

In 2020 six major Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) from offshore wind were also signed. This shows the corporate demand for clean offshore wind energy. New PPA deals came from different sectors of the industry and included the large corporates Nestle, Amazon, Deutsche Bahn, Borealis and Ineos.

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