Europe saw €19 billion of new wind farm investments in 2019, according to WindEurope's annual report on Tuesday.
According to WindEurope's Financing and Investment Trends report, a further €33 billion was invested in the refinancing of wind farms, the acquisitions of wind farm projects and other transactions.
Most of the investments in new wind farms were in onshore wind with €13 billion.
'This covered over 10 GW of new projects, showing continued strong interest in Europe for the development of onshore wind farms,' the report said.
WindEurope CEO Giles Dickson said that governments and investors continue to have strong appetite for onshore wind in most of Europe because it is the cheapest form of new power generation capacity.
The latest auctions in Poland, Denmark, Greece, France, Italy and Lithuania all testify to the strong support for onshore wind and competitive prices, he said.
-Financing
The report also takes a closer look at the diverse investors involved in wind energy financing.
According to WindEurope, banks play an increasing role extending over €20 billion of non-recourse debt in 2019 -- loans secured by collateral, usually property.
'The importance of non-recourse debt continues to grow. It now accounts for 49% of all investment in new onshore wind projects and 77% of all investment in new offshore wind farms,' the report stated.
€1 equals 7.36 Turkish liras
By Gulsen Cagatay
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr