European wind tops best ever year with December record: WindEurope

London — European wind power generation set a new record in December, averaging 63 GW and pushing annual output above 390 TWh for the first time, grid operator data aggregated by WindEurope showed Thursday.

Calmer weather over Christmas saw daily wind output drop below 50 GW for the last 10 days of 2019 after Week 50 averaged above 80 GW, the data showed.

Europe's wind turbines generated 47 TWh in December, up 25% on the year and some 2 TWh above the previous monthly record set in March this year.

The gains were driven by new capacity and above-average wind resources for much of 2019. March and December showed the biggest gains.

Installed wind capacity across Europe was set to rise above 200 GW last year, with WindEurope's latest forecast pegging end-2019 capacity between 203 GW-207 GW, up from 189 GW at the end of 2018.

In 2019, Europe?s wind turbines generated more electricity than France?s reactor fleet for the first time, with annual wind output of 390 TWh the energy equivalent of around 735 standard LNG cargoes or 74 Bcm of gas burn (50% efficiency) or 151 million mt of coal (37% efficiency), S&P Global Platts calculations showed.

Wind output for Europe's big five markets for the first 11 months was up 11% on the year at 249 TWh, Platts Renewables Tracker showed.

--Andreas Franke, andreas.franke@spglobal.com

--Edited by Jonathan Loades-Carter, jonathan.carter@spglobal.com