Offshore wind farms off the coast of Belgium generated a record 804 gigawatt-hours of electricity last month, according to the Belgian Offshore Platform (BOP).
BOP, a non-profit association of investors and owners of wind farms in the Belgian part of the North Sea, said the new record was down to increased capacity and strong wind conditions.
It calculated the output based on the electricity flow at the country’s transmission system operator Elia’s grid connection point for offshore wind.
BOP said offshore wind capacity increased 60MW in February to 1616MW from 1556MW due to the commissioning of the first turbines at the Northwester 2 project (pictured).
Capacity has increased by 430MW since February last year, the group said.
It added that the average capacity factor last month was 74%, with the previous record 70%, set in December 2015.
Over the last five years, the average capacity factor in February was 53%, BOP said.
“With a capacity factor of 53%, a production of 570GWh can be expected – production in February was therefore approximately 40% higher this year than expected according to the five-year average,” the organisation said.
The capacity factor is energy produced in megawatt-hours divided by the installed capacity in MW and divided by the number of hours in the month, it added.