European Offshore Wind Power Market Increases by 51%

The following highlights are from The European Wind Power Association's recently released report titled, "The European offshore wind industry key trends and statistics 2010."

2010 offshore wind power market

• 308 new offshore wind turbines, worth some €2.6 billion, were fully grid connected between 1 January and 31 December 2010, totalling 883 MW – a 51% increase on the previous year;

• Eight wind farms were fully completed and grid connected, one wind farm was partially grid connected, and one wind farm was completed but not grid connected;

• Offshore work began on a further four projects and preparatory onshore work on four new projects.

Cumulative offshore wind power market

• 1,136 turbines installed and grid connected, totaling 2,946 MW in 45 wind farms in nine European countries. The offshore wind capacity installed by the end of 2010 will in a normal year produce 11.5 TWh of electricity;

• Average wind turbine size is now 3.2 MW;

• 65% of substructures are monopiles, 25% are gravity and 8% are jacket.

Market outlook: 2011 and beyond

• EWEA forecasts that between 1,000 and 1,500 MW of new offshore wind capacity will be fully grid connected in Europe during 2011;

• 10 wind farms, totalling 3,000 MW, are currently under construction. When completed, Europe’s installed offshore capacity will increase to 6,200 MW;

• 19,000 MW are currently fully consented.

Trends: turbines, foundations, water depth and distance to shore

• The average offshore wind farm size in 2010 was 155.3 MW, up from 72.1 MW the previous year;

• Average water depth in 2010 was 17.4m, a 5.2m increase on 2009, with projects under construction in water depth averaging 25.5m;

• Average distance to shore increased in 2010 by 12.7 km to 27.1 km, substantially less, however, than the 35.7 km average for projects currently under construction.

Click here, to download the full report.
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EWEA