Wind-erbar! Germany’s offshore boom

Wind has come of age in Germany. Historically strong in the onshore sector, it is now making major advances in offshore wind power based in sites along its North Sea […]

Wind has come of age in Germany. Historically strong in the onshore sector, it is now making major advances in offshore wind power based in sites along its North Sea coast.

Last month offshore windpark Borkum Riffgrund 1, operated by Dong Energy, fed electricity into the German grid for the first time. Once complete, the 312MW project will consist of 78 turbines.

February also saw the start of operations at Europe’s first purely communal offshore windpark, Trianel, where 40, 5MW turbines are being brought online successively. A further 24 turbines at the Butendiek offshore windpark have also started delivering power.

Esther Frey, wind energy market expert at Germany Trade & Invest, the promotion agency of the German government, said these latest projects showed how much impact offshore wind could have.

She said: “The German offshore wind market is really taking off. We expect 3 GW of offshore capacity to be feeding in to the grid by the end of 2015 – even more will be installed awaiting connection.

“This continues the positive trend from last year when more than 5 GW of new on- and offshore capacity started delivering clean power to the grid.”

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