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Europe Offshore Wind Sector Grows 1H; 333 MW Installed -Report

Europe Offshore Wind Sector Grows 1H; 333 MW Installed -Report
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Τρι, 20 Ιουλίου 2010 - 17:16
The European offshore wind sector continued to grow in the first half of 2010, with 333 megawatts installed as wind farms in Germany, Denmark and the U.K. were connected to the grid, the European Wind Energy Association said Tuesday in a report.
The European offshore wind sector continued to grow in the first half of 2010, with 333 megawatts installed as wind farms in Germany, Denmark and the U.K. were connected to the grid, the European Wind Energy Association said Tuesday in a report.

Last year 577 megawatts of offshore wind capacity were installed. To date a total of 2.4 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity has been installed in Europe .

"Despite the financial crisis, offshore wind continues to be a major growth industry. The number of offshore wind turbines connected to the grid in the first half of this year is well over half the total amount installed all last year and I am confident we are heading for a record year," said EWEA director of policy Justin Wilkes.

Financing offshore wind farms on a non-recourse basis has been challenging in the first half of 2010 due to the financial crisis, in particular for independent project developers. Utilities have felt less of an impact and have funded investments from their balance sheets, the report said.

Institutions such as the European Investment Bank have also stepped in to bridge some of the funding gap currently experienced as a result of the financial crisis.

"Continued support from such public institutions is deemed crucial for the non-recourse market to take off given the volumes of funding required in aggregate and on each individual transaction," the report said.

Europe, and in particular the U.K., is on the verge of a huge ramp-up in offshore wind power over the next decade to help decarbonize the power sector and meet European climate change targets.

But even though the potential is huge, the sector is facing high development costs, an underdeveloped supply chain, technology and engineering challenges and a lack of grid infrastructure.

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