Renewable

July 17 (Renewables Now) - Transmission grid operator (TSO) TenneT, which operates in both the Netherlands and Germany, has transmitted 9.51 TWh of offshore wind power in Germany during the first half of 2019, up by 16% on the year.

COO Tim Meyerjurgens said in a statement on Monday that the share of electricity transmission from the North Sea was stable at about 15% of the total wind power production in Germany. The country’s total offshore yield in the period amounted to 11.64 TWh, including the output of wind turbines in the Baltic Sea that are outside of TenneT’s grid area. An additional 52.27 TWh of electricity was produced by onshore wind farms.

TenneT expects to increase the offshore transmission capacity in the German part of the North Sea to nearly 9 GW by 2024, taking into consideration planned connections and those that are already under construction.

Meyerjurgens stated that the roll-out of offshore wind in Europe needs to be accelerated because otherwise the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement for the continent will not be achieved. TenneT, meanwhile, has presented a feasibility study by the North Sea Wind Power Hub consortium with regard to the implementation of wind power hubs in the North Sea.

"A future internationally coordinated approach could implement the connection and integration of a roll-out of large-scale offshore wind energy more effectively and at considerably lower costs of up to 30 percent than with continued individual national planning," Meyerjurgens added.

Using the consortium’s approach, 180 GW of offshore wind could be achieved in the North Sea by 2045, TenneT concluded.