EU Installs Record Wind Power as Technology Leapfrogs Hydro

  • Germany leads EU with 47 percent of new wind installations
  • Doubling of offshore market offset dip in onshore wind

Wind turbines operate on an onshore green field site in this aerial photograph taken near Hamburg.

Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg
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The European Union installed record wind-power capacity in 2015 as the technology leapfrogged hydropower to become the third-biggest source of electricity in the 28-nation bloc.

Germany’s market led the growth, installing 47 percent of the 12.8-gigawatts of new wind power capacity across the region, the European Wind Energy Association said Tuesday in an e-mailed report. Record offshore installations canceled out a dip in new onshore machines. That pushed the total for 2015 above the 12.1 gigawatts registered in 2014.