Rush to secure subsidies leads to record onshore wind growth

Onshore wind installations reached a record high in 2017 as developers rushed to complete projects in time to grab disappearing subsidies.

New statistics published by the trade association Wind Europe show the UK added 2.6GW of onshore capacity over the year – double the previous record of 1.3GW in 2013.

The flurry of installations was prompted by looming deadlines to secure subsidies through the Renewables Obligation scheme, which began closing to new onshore projects in May 2016.

As the scheme is shutting down earlier than originally intended, there are five grace periods for accreditations, with the last finishing in January 2019. Two of the grace periods ended in 2017 – one in March and another in May.

Grace periods for early closure of Renewables Obligation to onshore wind

Source: Ofgem

There was also a new high-water mark for combined onshore and offshore installations of 4.3GW. Offshore capacity grew by 1.7GW – the biggest increase in Europe – but the UK nevertheless came in second place for overall installations behind Germany which added 6.6GW.

The UK’s total wind capacity now stands at almost 18.9GW. Despite leading Europe on offshore wind, Britain remains in third behind Germany and Spain, both of which have significantly more onshore wind. Wind farms met 13.5 per cent of Britain’s electricity demand in 2017. Denmark topped the table at 44.4 per cent.

Installations across the whole of the EU hit a new yearly high of 15.7GW – 12.5GW of onshore and 3.2GW of offshore – representing 55 per cent of all new generation capacity. The cumulative total for the region is 169.3 GW.

Cumulative wind capacity across the EU

Source: Wind Europe

Wind Europe chief executive Giles Dickson said: “2017 was a strong year for wind energy with a high number of new installations and wind accounting for 12 per cent of Europe’s electricity. It’s further evidence that wind is mainstream and delivers bang for your buck. It’s cheap, increasingly stable, and industrial consumers are now turning to it as an energy source of choice.”

He continued: “That it was a record year reflects the fact that a lot of the new projects were ‘pushed through the gates’ to benefit from feed-in-tariffs and other old support schemes while they still applied. This was especially the case in Germany with its 5 GW of new onshore and was also true for the UK and France.”

Industry body Renewable UK says its expects to see a massive drop-off in new onshore wind in the UK due to its continued exclusion from Contracts for Difference auctions, with installations falling to just 0.94GW in 2018 and 0.37GW in 2019.