In the first half of the year sales of wind turbines decreased, despite the ambitions of Germany and the UK. This makes obvious the struggle which the offshore wind sector and its financial supporters are facing in reaching the respective countries´ goals.
As the financial crisis has spread throughout Europe, banks minimized the loans and developers were not that eager to get involved in new projects because of the grid connection issues.
As reported by Bloomberg, in the said period Vestas made one unconditional order for 216 MW following MAKE Consulting´s preliminary data, while Siemens was one of those manufacturers who were shut out, resulting in a great obstacle for Germany.
Namely, the country is focusing on a tenfold offshore wind expansion in order to avoid using fossil fuels and to create additional working positions.
Along with the UK, Germany has the most offshore wind projects and both countries are experiencing setbacks created from the shortage of investment, cable, engineers and ships capable of doing the work. Overall, this has led to holding up of the grid connection.
[mappress]
Offshore WIND Staff, July 17, 2012; Image: Siemens