Investment in offshore wind in Europe doubled to €13.3bn last year, a record year for financing and grid installations, according to the European Wind Energy Association.
The EWEA said that just over 3GW of new offshore capacity came online in Europe in 2015.
Europe’s total offshore wind capacity is more than 11GW, EWEA said.A further 3GW of capacity reached final investment decision last year, a twofold increase on 2014.
Germany (2282MW), the UK (556MW) and the Netherlands (180MW) were the three countries to grid-connect new offshore wind turbines in 2015 with 14 projects reaching completion.
Work is ongoing on a further six projects in Germany, the UK and the Netherlands, which will contribute an additional 1.9GW in capacity, EWEA said.The average turbine size rose to 4.2MW from 3.7MW the previous year.
EWEA chief executive officer Giles Dickson said: “New capacity additions will be lower in 2016 than 2015 though should then rebound, and we can expect to have over 20GW offshore wind in Europe by 2020.
“The real question is what happens after 2020. The industry is making real progress in reducing costs.
“We need governments to give us a clear vision of the volumes they envisage long term and the regulatory framework they’ll apply to drive the necessary investments.
“Active collaboration between governments is also key: to align their efforts to develop the sector in the North Sea and Baltic.”
Image: reNEWS
Offshore investment tops €13bn in EU
EWEA says 2015 was a record year but 2016 will see a drop off
By EBS