Germany approves record capacity for new onshore wind turbines in 2025
Clean Energy Wire
Germany approved a record 20.8 gigawatts (GW) of onshore wind capacity in 2025, according to figures from the industry agency Fachagentur Wind und Solar. At 5.2 GW, newly installed turbine capacity also rose sharply, with a 58-percent increase compared to the previous year. “The year 2025 stands out due to an exceptional upward trend in both commissioning and issued permits for new onshore wind turbines,” the agency wrote in a report.
Approval procedures also have become faster, with an average completion time of 17 months – 28 percent less than in 2024. “Almost half of the newly approved wind turbines in 2025 received the official notification within a year,” the agency wrote. “If the current pace of implementation continues and failure rates remain comparably low, as it happened in previous years, gross expansion in 2026 is likely to reach 8 to 8.5 GW of capacity,” it added.
North Rhine-Westphalia led the federal states' expansion ranking for the third year in a row, as its 5.9 GW of awarded capacity accounted for about 30 percent of the total newly approved capacity. The western state was followed with 5.2 GW by northern Lower Saxony, which boasts the largest installed capacity of all states.
Germany aims to install 115 GW of onshore wind capacity by 2030. Expanding its wind power capacity is a key part of the German government’s plan to meet national climate targets, including the aim to have an electricity grid running on 80 percent renewables by 2030. Germany has one of the largest wind turbine fleets in the world, and wind energy was the country’s single most important power source in 2025, contributing 24 percent of total gross electricity generation.
By the end of 2025, Germany had 29,226 onshore wind turbines with a total capacity of just over 68 GW. Net expansion last year amounted to 4.6 GW. The wind and solar agency expects the bidding rounds for onshore energy to also be heavily oversubscribed in 2026.
