The power output of German North Sea wind farms has risen by 21% last year as the country already exceeds its 2020 offshore wind capacity target of 6.5GW, transmission system operator TenneT said.
Europe’s largest economy at the end of 2019 had 6.4GW of offshore wind operating in the North Sea and another about 740MW in the Baltic Sea. Tennet said it has already built grid connections for 7.1GW in capacity in the North Sea.
“We are happy to already have me the target early that was set by the federal government,” TenneT TenneT Germany managing director Tim Meyerjürgens said.
“With another three further offshore grid links being built, we will provide 10GW in transmission capacity from the North Sea in Germany by 2025.”
Although the offshore wind build-up in Germany has advanced fast in recent years, the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel has put on the brakes for further development, and only plans to hold its next tender for wind at sea in 2021.
The governing coalition in the wake of discussions on climate legislation has said it is willing to raise the 15GW offshore wind target for 2030 to 20GW, but so far has not acted on the promise.
TenneT last year transmitted 21.21 terawatt hours of electricity from the North Sea to the German grid, 20.7% more than in 2018. Power from the North Sea made up 16.6% of Germany’s overall wind output in 2019.
Another 3.95TWh were produced in wind farms in the Baltic Sea, which are transmitted by TSO 50Hertz.
TenneT also builds the offshore wind grid links in the Dutch part of the North Sea, where it plans to provide 3.5GW in grid connection capacity by 2023.
