European Offshore Wind Capacity up 18%
Europe installed 2.6 GW of new offshore wind energy capacity in 2018, according to statistics released by the European Wind Energy Association, WindEurope. That translates to a 18% increase in Europe’s offshore wind capacity.According to WindEurope, 15 new offshore wind farms came on line. The UK and Germany accounted for 85% of the new capacity: 1.3 GW and 969 MW respectively.Europe now has 105 offshore wind farms across 11 countries with a total capacity of 18.5 GW. This is around 10% of the total installed wind energy capacity in Europe – the rest is onshore.The size and scale of
Offshore Wind Industry Races to Cut Costs as Subsidies Drop
costs to help the industry survive. Britain, Germany and the Netherlands, wary of committing billions of euros when budgets are tight, have announced subsidy cuts in the past 18 months - a blow to the European offshore wind industry which employs nearly 60,000 people. This has led the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) to slash its forecasts for installed offshore capacity in Europe to about 25 gigawatts (GW) by 2020, from a 2009 forecast for 40 GW, still more than triple current capacity of about 7 GW. However, utilities remain keen to invest in offshore wind - which the EWEA says is the