The UK was home to more than half of new offshore wind capacity in Europe in 2017, statistics published by the trade body Wind Europe have revealed.
Total capacity across the continent grew by more than 3.1GW – or 25 per cent – to reach 15.8GW, with the UK accounting for 1.7GW of new installations.
Germany was the second biggest installer with 1.2GW, whilst Denmark came third with 165MW.
The statistics also show the average size of new turbines installed in 2017 was 23 per cent larger than in 2016 at 5.9MW. The average size of new wind farms similarly rose 34 per cent to 493MW.
Over the year, 13 new offshore wind farms were completed, including the world’s first floating offshore wind farm, Hywind Scotland.
The UK hosted the large single addition to capacity with the connection to the grid of 498MW of turbines from the 573MW Race Bank wind farm developed by Orsted.
Orsted alone was responsible for nearly a fifth (19 per cent) of all new capacity across Europe – the largest share for any developer. Scottish Power owner Iberdrola took second place (11 per cent) followed by Macquarie Capital in third (10 per cent).
Giles Dickson, chief executive of Wind Europe, said: “A 25 per cent increase in one year is spectacular. Offshore wind is now a mainstream part of the power system. And the costs have fallen rapidly. Investing in offshore wind today costs no more than in conventional power generation.”
Cumulative offshore wind capacity across Europe
Source: Wind Europe