German and Dutch North Sea Yields 30 TWh of Offshore Wind Energy

January 29, 2024, by Adnan Memija

Offshore wind farms in the German and Dutch North Sea generated over 30 TWh of renewable power, according to the German-Dutch transmission system operator (TSO) TenneT.

The TSO transmitted around 19.24 TWh of wind energy from the German North Sea to land in 2023 and another 11.54 TWh entered the Netherlands, which is an increase compared to 2022’s 7.91 TWh.

The rise is primarily due to the commissioning of the Hollandse Kust (noord) offshore grid connection system by TenneT and the corresponding expansion of offshore wind farms in 2023, according to the TSO.

TenneT’s transmission capacity in the Dutch North Sea increased to 4,666 MW while the onshore wind energy capacity in the Netherlands was 6,854 MW in the previous year, which generated 7.96 TWh of wind energy (the previous year was 5.14 TWh).

In Germany, the annual result for 2023 was around nine per cent below the previous year’s figure of 21.13 TWh, TenneT said.

Due to a simultaneous increase in onshore wind power generation, the total result in Germany in 2023 was 148.97 TWh (the previous year 122.79 TWh), according to the TSO.

At around 13 per cent, the share of North Sea electricity in 2023 was around 4 per cent lower than in the previous year (17.2 per cent). Since the completion of the 13th offshore grid connection (DolWin6) in September 2023, TenneT’s offshore transmission capacity in the German North Sea has increased to 8,032 MW (the previous year was 7,132 MW).

As of 31 December 2023, the total installed offshore wind capacity in the German North Sea reached 7,106 MW (previous year: 7,036 MW), while in the Dutch North Sea it was 5,622 MW (previous year: 3,220 MW).

The installed capacity of wind turbines in the German Baltic Sea totalled 1,352 MW and they generated 4.17 TWh in 2023 (previous year: 3.62 TWh), meaning that Germany’s total offshore yield last year was 23.41 TWh (including 19.24 TWh in the North Sea).

“Due to the still numerous congestions in the onshore electricity grid, the large wind farms in the North Sea have to be shut down more and more frequently because there are hardly any large conventional power plants in the north that could be throttled instead. As a result, the associated redispatch slows down the generation of offshore wind power,” said Tim Meyerjürgens, TenneT COO.

“This not only affects the amount of electricity fed into the grid, but also impacts its price development. This shows that Germany must continue to accelerate the expansion of the grid and the major electricity highways so that the potential of the North Sea as a wind power plant for Germany and Europe can be utilised efficiently as soon as possible.”