More than 1,000 offshore wind turbines in German waters

Offshore wind power generation in German waters has passed a symbolic threshold, as the number of wind turbines exceeded 1,000 for the first time, Kai Eckert writes for energy industry magazine Energie & Management. According to figures of the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency of Germany (BSH), Germany now boasts 1,028 offshore wind turbines with a capacity of 4,600 megawatts (MW) in its exclusive economic zone, starting 15 kilometres off the coasts of the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, the article says. Germany’s Renewables Act stipulates that total offshore wind power capacity grow to 6,500 MW by 2020 and to 15,000 MW by 2030. In 2016, offshore wind power generated 12.4 billion kilowatt hours of electricity, “theoretically enough to power the city of Hamburg entirely,” Eckert writes.
In a separate article, website Spiegel Online says the BSH estimates that about 10-15 percent of Germany’s total North Sea area could be needed for the expansion of offshore wind power in the long run. Environmental organisations warn that the sea should not be turned into “an industrial zone”, the article says, but BSH head Monika Breuch-Moritz says a large share of the German North Sea consists of protected areas that would not be affected by offshore wind power expansion.  

Find the Energie & Management article in German here and the Spiegel Online article in German here (paywall).

For an analysis of Germany’s onshore wind industry, see this CLEW factsheet.