German Offshore Wind Farms Shine in Q1 2017

German offshore wind farms generated 4.8 billion kWh of electricity in the first quarter of 2017, a 36.7 percent jump compared to 3.5 billion kWh of electricity generated offshore Germany in the first quarter of 2016. 

The figures were released by the Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research in Baden-Württemberg (ZSW) and the German Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW).

Strong Q1 figures put Germany on track to surpass the last year’s record of 12.09 billion kWh of power generated by offshore wind farms.

The rise in the generation is most likely due to an increase in offshore wind capacity and favourable wind conditions.

The total number of turbines connected to Germany’s grid by 31 December 2015 was 792, with a combined capacity of 3,295MW. In 2016, Germany added further 818MW of offshore wind capacity, with the total combined capacity reaching 4,113MW by the end of the last year.

Overall, the share of electricity generated from the sun, wind and other regenerative sources of energy accounted for 32 percent of gross electricity consumption in Germany in the first quarter of 2017.

The share of renewable energies was up 4 percent from the same quarter in the previous year, rising from 48.1 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) to 50.1 billion kWh.

“To avoid losing public support for the Energiewende [Germany’s exit from nuclear power and fossil fuels and transition to renewables], we have got to get costs under control. The results of the first round of tendering for offshore wind power go to show that we are on the right track with the EEG 2017,” said Stefan Kapferer, Chairman of BDEW’s General Executive Management Board.