Germany’s wind power output in January-May rose 34% year on year and the country is on track for a third successive record year for new turbine installations, with the first wave of offshore wind farms finally coming online, a Platts analysis of the latest available data show.
Wind turbines in Germany generated 32.5 TWh of electricity in January-May, up more than 8 TWh from a year earlier, grid operator data compiled by Platts Powervision show.
According to industry experts, the pending reform of Germany’s renewable energy law (EEG) and the introduction of an annual cap on solar in 2012 are one reason that triggered the latest boom in wind with onshore developers rushing to get projects implemented ahead of the launch of an annual cap on onshore wind this year.
Another reason for the current wind boom is delays in offshore grid links, which put back the planned start date of many offshore wind farms.
However, with the offshore grid link bottlenecks now easing, the first wave of some 3 GW of German offshore wind farms is on track to be online by the end of 2015.
Offshore wind power capacity registered for direct marketing was 2.225 GW in May, a fourfold increase from a year earlier, according to the latest data from the TSOs.
Last year, German offshore wind developers brought 529 MW online, doubling total installed capacity to 1.049 GW, according to the annual statistics.
Image: Fraunhofer IWES (Illustration)