Germany's North Sea wind generation grows 50% y/y in H1

Some 7.77 TWh of offshore wind electricity was transferred from the North Sea to the German shore in the first half of 2017, a 50% rise from the year-ago figure of 5.18 TWh, transmission system operator (TSO) TenneT Holding BV said today.

Behind the increase is an expansion of offshore wind farm capacity in the North Sea to nearly 4,400 MW at the end of June from almost 3,000 MW in the first half of 2016. The wind farms in the area hit peak infeed performance of 4,010 MW on June 7.

TenneT noted that offshore wind generation in the North Sea has now reached a 16.5% share of Germany's overall wind output. Total generation was 47.21 TWh, including 8.47 TWh generated offshore as another 0.7 TWh were generated from wind farms in the Baltic Sea, which is not within the TenneT grid area, and 38.74 TWh produced offshore.

TenneT has 5,221 MW of offshore wind connections and is to bring them to 7,132 MW by the end of 2019 through the completion of another three grid connection systems. A further four connections are planned by 2025, which will take North Sea transmission capacity to over 10,000 MW.

Lex Hartman, member of the TenneT management board, said "TenneT has now achieved more than 80% of the federal government’s expansion goal of having 6,500 megawatts of offshore wind capacities by 2020."

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