GWEC looks to new offshore wind hotspots as capacity hits 4.62GW

EnBW's Baltic 1, the first commercial offshore wind farm in German waters.

GWEC says 90% of offshore capacity has been installed off northern Europe

The global offshore wind sector reached 4.62GW of capacity at the end of June, accounting for 2% of total wind installations, says the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC).

GWEC says 90% of that capacity has been installed off northern Europe, while most of the rest is in two demonstration projects off China’s east coast.

However, GWEC points out that there are expectations for major deployment in countries such as Japan, Korea, the US, Canada and Taiwan, while even India is enthusiastic about the offshore sector.

It says the more ambitious projections foresee 80GW of offshore wind installed by 2020, with three quarters of this in Europe.

There is now almost 6GW of offshore capacity under construction in Europe, while a…

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