Wind Power Capacity in Eastern Europe & Russia Increased by 17% QoQ

According to a new report, there was a 17 percent wind power capacity increase Quarter over Quarter (QoQ) in Eastern Europe and Russia.

According to a new report, an auction-triggered awakening in Poland and a growing confidence in developers’ ability to comply with local content requirements in Russia led to a 17 percent wind power capacity increase Quarter over Quarter (QoQ) in Eastern Europe and Russia.

This increase influenced a 3.1 GW upgrade in Europe QoQ, as noted in Wood Mackenzie’s ‘Global Wind Power Market Outlook Update: Q3 2019’. However, the report reveals that the undersubscription of the last two onshore wind tenders in Germany resulted in a 3 percent downgrade in Western Europe QoQ. All other European sub-regions were upgraded this quarter. This was underpinned by a 3 percent elevation in North Europe, headlined by improved policy visibility in Ireland (+666 MW) and continued investment in Finland (+426 MW). 15 of the top 20 countries globally are expected to more than double their installation base by 2028.

The outlook for Germany has been downgraded by 2.3 GW as the last two onshore wind tender rounds, held in August and September of this year, went heavily undersubscribed. This exacerbated the crisis faced by the country’s onshore wind sector, which continues to encounter public opposition and court appeals

“With a 5 percent upgrade in the US over the outlook period, slow-moving utility interest will mobilise to capture expiring wind power Production Tax Credits (PTCs). Deliverability concerns continue to mount as the backlog of contracted and high-probability capacity swells beyond 23GW for 2020, causing some spillover of ‘excusable disruption’ capacity into 2021,” said Luke Lewandowski, Wood Mackenzie research director.

Further, the report also highlighted that the market turmoil in India cut the Asia Pacific outlook. Relentless market disorder persists in India, where a 3.2 GW downgrade from 2019 to 2021 cuts the 10-year outlook for the Asia Pacific – excluding China – by 2.8 percent.

“A carefully-watched legal dispute in India’s Andhra Pradesh, a key wind power state, could eventually spoil opportunity in other states and disrupt the outlook. However, there will be no significant change to the rest of Asia Pacific QoQ other than the financial close of a project in New Zealand. This will boost an otherwise dormant market.

“China’s domestic supply chain will limit developer ambitions to capitalise on the expiring feed-in-tariff (FIT), therefore resulting in no change to the outlook on the country QoQ,” added Lewandowski.