Offshore wind investments in Europe doubled in 2015 to €13.3 Billion in a record year for financing and grid-connected installations. We look at what this means for the future of offshore wind towards 2020.
2015 proved to be a bumper year for offshore wind investments in Europe with total investment doubling from previous years. A total of 3,019 MW in new offshire wind capacity came online in European waters in 2015, bringing Europe’s total offshore wind capacity to 11,027 MW.
A further 3,034 MW of capacity – spread across ten projects – reached final investment decision last year, a two-fold increase on 2014.
Germany (2,282 MW), the United Kingdom (556 MW) and the Netherlands (180 MW) were the three countries to grid-connect new offshore wind turbines in 2015 with 14 projects reaching completion. Work is on-going on a further six projects in Germany, the UK and the Netherlands which will contribute to an additional 1.9 GW in capacity.
With a net addition of 754 wind turbines fully grid-connected in 2015, the average machine size rose to 4.2 MW from 3.7 MW a year earlier as manufacturers continue to develop larger models with higher energy capture.
