Transmission system operator TenneT transferred 7.77 terawatt hours (TWh) of energy from offshore wind farms in the North Sea to the mainland grid in the first half of 2017, a 50% jump compared to 5.18 TWh transferred from the North Sea in the first half of 2016.
In the first six months of 2017, the North Sea offshore wind farms delivered an equivalent of the 72% of their output for the entire 2016, which stood at 10.83 TWh.
Overall, the energy generated in the North Sea in 1H 2017 covered 16.5% of total wind energy generation in Germany.
Lex Hartman , Member of the TenneT Management Board, said: “The flow of energy from the North Sea has now reached a significant 16.5% share of overall wind energy generation in Germany and thus represents almost a sixth of the total wind power output. At the same time, future costs will decrease for wind farms and connection systems, which points to excellent economic performance in the field of offshore energy. We are also expecting this trend to continue as time progresses.”
The maximum infeed performance of offshore wind farms in the North Sea reached 4,010 megawatts on 7 June 2017, TenneT said. Capacity expansion for offshore wind farms in the North Sea attained 4,399 megawatts on the effective date of 30 June 2017.
In total, TenneT has nine offshore grid connection systems with a joint 5,221-megawatt capacity for transmitting offshore wind energy to the power grid.
“Offshore wind farm capacities in the North Sea totalled almost 3,000 megawatts in the first half of 2016, which rose to almost 4,400 megawatts by the end of June 2017. This expansion, on the one hand, lays clear the present growth in generation output, but a major prerequisite for the successful bringing in of the ‘wind harvest’ was the continual expansion of TenneT transmission capacities, since February 2016 we have already been able to supply more than 5,200 megawatts. As such, TenneT has now achieved more than 80% of the federal government’s expansion goal of having 6,500 megawatts of offshore wind capacities by 2020,” said Hartmann.
TenneT will complete three further grid connection systems by the end of 2019, which will make available a transmission capacity of 7,132 megawatts from the North Sea. There are plans for four more connections by 2025, which will increase North Sea transmission capacity to over 10,000 megawatts.