Europe has 5 million square kilometres potentially available for wind farms, with a capacity of more than 52,000 GW — enough to meet global energy demand.
If wind turbines were installed across every potentially suitable area in Europe, the continent could generate enough energy to meet the entire world's energy demand. This is what researchers at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom and the University of Aarhus in Denmark have found, according to whom 4.9 million square kilometres in Europe, equivalent to 46% of the territory, could accommodate wind turbines, after excluding urban areas, military sites and other landscapes unsuitable for harnessing wind.
Using the Copernicus satellite, wind atlases, maps and cartographies, and the regulatory and normative databases of individual regions and nations, the researchers developed techniques to map the onshore wind energy potential across the entire European continent. Eastern European countries offer the greatest potential for generating new onshore wind energy, and in particular European countries that are not members of the European Union, such as Russia, Turkey and Norway.
The study estimates that, in theory, more than 11 million new wind turbines could be installed across nearly 5 million square kilometres of suitable areas. According to the research, Europe could thus produce 100 times more energy than is currently generated by wind farms worldwide, and 270 times that of European wind capacity installed both onshore and offshore.
The available areas would allow for the installation of 11.6 million turbines, with a total capacity of 52,500 GW. At the end of 2018, global installed wind capacity stood at 486 GW, while total capacity in the EU amounted to 189 GW. This equates to 1 MW of capacity for every 16 inhabitants, and total electricity production would be more than a hundred times that of current European wind output. The study considers wind turbines that are more efficient and powerful (4.5 MW) than those in use today, which average 2–3 MW.
The report concludes that if the potential were fully exploited, Europe could supply the entire planet with all the energy it will need in 2050. The conditional is, however, necessary: the researchers emphasise that this is not a proposal, but an indication of the untapped power of wind potential. It is therefore a strong message for policymakers. "Obviously, we are not saying that we should install turbines on every identified site, but the study shows the enormous wind energy potential across Europe that must be harnessed if we are to avoid a climate catastrophe," said co-author Benjamin Sovacool, professor of energy policy at the University of Sussex.