Europe and China have between them propelled offshore wind a fraction past 12GW of global cumulative installations by the end of last year — impressive growth for a sector that in 2011 was barely nudging 4GW.

Europe connected a bar-raising 3.03GW of new offshore capacity in 2015 to reach 11.03GW, with Germany taking over from the UK as the continent’s pacesetter and adding 2.28GW