The European offshore wind industry attracted a record € 14 billion in new investments during the first six months of 2016. Seven projects reached final investment decision this year, financing a total of 3.7GW of new capacity.
The UK accounted for nearly three-quarters of the new investments. The volume of new grid-connected installations in the first half of 2016 was 511MW, 78% down on the same period in 2015. This is expected to pick up next year and toward 2020. Total installed offshore wind capacity in Europe now stands at 11,538 MW across 82 wind farms in 11 countries. Only Germany (258MW) and the Netherlands (253MW) added new capacity in the first 6 months. The average size of the 114 new turbines installed was 4.8MW, up from 4.2MW a year ago. In June, energy ministers from 9 European countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and Work Programme to enhance their cooperation on offshore wind. In parallel 11 energy companies signed a declaration to reduce offshore wind costs to below € 80/MWh by 2025. This assumes an annual build-out of 4-7GW of offshore wind from 2021 onwards.
