Grid-connected offshore capacity in the German areas of the North and Baltic Seas increased by 529MW last year to reach an accumulated 1.05GW, according to figures compiled by research company Deutsche WindGuard for Germany's leading wind groups.

Another 1.3GW has already been installed and are awaiting their grid-connection, while a further 923MW is currently being built.

"In 2015, we expect some 2GW of new offshore wind machines in the grid," Norbert Giese, who heads the offshore wind industry body within the VDMA engineering federation, said at a press conference in Berlin.