Offshore wind in Europe

7 February 2019

Offshore wind in Europe – key trends and statistics 2018

Overview

In 2018 Europe connected 409 new offshore wind turbines to the grid across 18 projects. This brought 2,649 MW of net additional capacity.
Europe now has a total installed offshore wind capacity of 18,499 MW. This corresponds to 4,543 grid-connected wind turbines across 11 countries.

Separately, twelve new offshore wind projects reached Final Investment Decision (FID) in 2018. Investments in new assets amounted to €10.3bn. This financed 4.2 GW of additional capacity, which will come on line in the next couple of years.

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Findings

Europe installed 2.6 GW of new offshore wind energy capacity in 2018

€10.3bn of investments made for 4.2 GW of additional capacity

Total capacity grew by 18% to 18.5 GW

15 new offshore wind farms were completed last year

The UK and Germany accounted for 85% of the installations: 1.3 GW and 969 MW respectively

Last year the average offshore turbine size was 6.8 MW, 15% up on 2017

The largest turbine in the world was connected in the UK (the V164-8.8 MW from MHI Vestas Offshore Wind)

The world’s biggest wind farm came online also in the UK (Walney 3 extension, 657 MW)

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