Brussels, 27/07/2016 (Agence Europe) - The European offshore wind industry attracted a record €14 billion in new investments during the first six months of 2016, the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) announced on Wednesday 27 July.
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, EWEA says.
The volume of new grid-connected installations in the first half of 2016 was 511 MW, 78% down on the same period in 2015 but this is expected to pick up next year and towards 2020, the association adds.
“The record investment numbers show a clear industry commitment to offshore wind. …but there are a lot of challenges out there still on offshore wind. Not least the uncertainty over future volumes and regulation in many key markets for the period after 2020”, it qualifies.
Total installed offshore wind capacity in Europe now stands at 11,538 MW across 82 wind farms in 11 countries. Only Germany (258 MW) and the Netherlands (253 MW) added new capacity in the first 6 months of the year. The average size of the 114 new turbines installed was 4.8 MW, up from 4.2 MW a year ago.
EWEA welcomes the memorandum of understanding and work programme signed at the start of June by energy ministers from nine EU countries (Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands and Sweden) and Norway to enhance their cooperation on offshore wind ( EUROPE 11566).
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 4-7 GW of offshore wind from 2021 onwards, the association states.
“The costs of offshore wind are falling, but we need healthy volumes in the market to sustain this. The current pipeline of projects is not enough, and the commitments member states have so far made for beyond 2020 fall well short of what's needed. This risks undermining Europe's competitive position in offshore wind. We're number one today with over 90% of the world's capacity, but the US and China are now moving to rapidly expand their offshore wind investments”, warns EWEA. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)