Wind energy

Why the EU supports wind energy research and innovation

More than three decades of research and innovation have contributed to the success of wind energy in the EU.

In 2022, wind energy covered 16% of the EU electricity demand and, according to Eurostat, wind accounted for over one-third (37%) of the total electricity generated from renewable sources in the EU in 2021.

Wind energy is one of the key technologies to reach the EU energy and climate targets. According to these targets, more than one third of the EU electricity demand will be covered by wind energy by 2030, and up to more than 40% by 2050.

Challenges and opportunities

Among the different energy technologies, wind power has one of the lowest impacts on human health and the environment. Over the last 10 years, thanks to innovation and economy of scale, wind energy has become significantly cheaper and, in many parts of Europe, is the cheapest source of electricity today. The EU has global leadership in wind energy technologies and the EU wind energy sector is an important job provider.

However, to further address the various challenges the wind power sector is experiencing, research and innovation remain important:

• Considering the major growth of wind energy capacity needed to reach the EU energy and climate targets, solutions to address the potential impacts of wind energy on environment and health must be further developed.
• Solutions to increase the circularity of wind energy technologies are also essential to address the multiple challenges that the sector is facing. They help to reduce the demand for raw materials and the risk of disruptions along the supply chain while increasing the environmental performance of the sector.
• Onshore and bottom-fixed wind energy technologies are now well established and competitive technologies. At the same time, floating offshore technologies need further developments to become more competitive and be deployed at large scale.

What the EU is doing

On 24 October 2023 the EU Wind Power Package was presented, which addresses several challenges for the wind energy sector, amongst which fast-tracking of permitting, improving the auction systems across the EU and focusing on skills, access to finance and stable supply chains.

To ensure that offshore renewable energy can help reach the EU's ambitious energy and climate targets for 2030 and 2050, the Commission also published an update of the dedicated EU strategy on offshore renewable energy, which proposes concrete ways forward to support the long-term sustainable development of this sector. 

EU research and innovation pays special attention to manufacturing, circularity, materials, skills and societal needs, with the aim of advancing the competitiveness of the clean energy sector, including wind energy technologies.

The EU continues its efforts to improve industrial productivity and efficiency across the value chain of wind energy, with a particular focus on offshore technologies. This involves improved manufacturing technologies, including digital technologies. An important objective is to build scale and reduce cost.

Projects are already ongoing to better assess and improve the environmental and social performance of wind energy technologies and additional actions are planned to better address the cumulative effects that different human activities and multiple offshore renewable energy farms have on ecosystems at sea basin level.

Documents

Study on the offshore energy potential in the Atlantic Ocean

Clean Energy Technology Observatory, Wind energy in the European Union

Status report on technology development, trends, value chains and markets : 2022

Research and Innovation to boost the development of offshore renewable energy (Factsheet)