EU to add 69GW renewables capacity in 2023

The EU will add 69GW of installed solar and wind capacity in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 17%, according to the latest progress report a year after the launch of the REPowerEU programme.

The EU report, citing statistics from Eurostat and European Solar, puts the total installed capacity of solar and wind in 2022 at 56GW, of which 41GW will be solar. Previously, Solar Power Europe expects installed solar capacity to grow to 54GW (medium scenario) and 68GW (high scenario) by 2023, an increase of 31.7%-65.8%.

The increase in 2023 is equivalent to an annual saving of 13 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas equivalent.

The study also examined each member state of the European Union. Germany, for example, installed around 9.8GW of renewable energy generation capacity in 2022, bringing the total to 148GW from 138GW in 2021. Of the German installation figures, 7.1GW is new solar PV, up from 5.7GW in 2021.

The Netherlands also saw a significant increase in renewable energy additions. Last year, it installed 9.24GW of renewable energy capacity, bringing the total to 32.83GW. Of the new installed capacity, 8GW was solar, up from 4GW in 2021.

Meanwhile, Spain installed around 5.9 GW of renewable energy capacity, bringing the total to 67.9 GW by 2022. Spain installed 4.5 GW of solar capacity last year, up from 3.6 GW in 2021.

According to PV Tech Premium, Poland has become one of the largest solar PV markets in Europe. It installed around 4.7GW of renewable energy capacity last year, bringing the total to 21.2GW. Of the installed capacity, 3.7GW was solar capacity, up from 3.4GW in 2021.