Europe connects 3.6GW of new offshore wind in 2019
Europe connected 3.6 GW of new offshore wind capacity in 2019 according to the report by WindEurope released today. This is a record in annual installations.
10 new offshore wind farms were connected in 5 countries. UK was the leader in connecting almost half of all the capacity - 1.7 GW. It was followed by Germany (1.1 GW), Denmark (374 MW) and Belgium (370 MW). Portugal installed 8 MW of floating offshore wind. With the capacity installed in 2019 Europe now has 22 GW of offshore wind.
The average size of the offshore turbines installed last year was 7.8 MW. The largest offshore wind turbine was installed in Rotterdam, its capacity is 12 MW. The report notes that offshore wind farms are also getting bigger. The average size doubled – it was 300 MW in 2010. Now it is over 600 MW. The largest offshore wind farm in the world at the moment is Hornsea 1 in the UK – 1.2 GW.
Europe has 45 MW of floating offshore wind. France, the UK, Norway and Portugal are all developing new floating projects. France plans to auction a large-scale floating wind farm in 2021.
Offshore wind costs continue to fall significantly. Last year’s auctions – in the UK, France and the Netherlands – delivered prices for consumers in the range of EUR40-50/MWh (USD 44-55/MWh). This is cheaper than building new gas, coal or nuclear.
2019 also saw investment decisions in 4 new offshore wind farms, representing 1.4 GW in capacity and EUR 6 billion (USD 6.6 billion) in investments.
The European Commission says Europe needs between 230 and 450 GW of offshore wind by 2050 to decarbonise the energy system and deliver the Green Deal. This requires Europe to build 7 GW of new offshore wind a year by 2030 and ramp up to 18 GW a year by 2050. But the current level of new installations and investments is a long way behind that.
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