Germany added 1.25GW of new offshore wind capacity in 2017 bringing the total to over 5.3GW, according to research coordinated by Deutsche WindGuard.
Some 222 new offshore wind turbines were connected to the grid last year, bringing the total to 1169 machines.
The analysis was conducted by the Offshore Wind Energy Alliance, Bundesverband WindEnergie, Offshore Windenergie foundation, VDMA Power Systems and Windenergie-Agentur.
New capacity in 2017 was up from the 818MW added in 2016, but was below the 2.2GW brought online in 2015.
German offshore wind generated 18.3 terrawatt hours (TWh) of electricity in 2017, an increase of almost 50% from the 12.3TWh produced the previous year.
Some 129 foundations were also installed last year.
Two offshore wind farms with a cumulative capacity of 780MW are under construction. They are the 395MW Merkur project in the North Sea and Eon’s 385MW Arkona facility in the Baltic Sea.
Image: EWE
Germany hits 5.3GW offshore
By EBS