Jul 26 2010
European Wind Energy Association (EWEA), an agency that actively promotes wind power utilization, has recently issued a statistical report on offshore wind turbines in service all over Europe.
According to the EWEA report, during the first half of the year 2010 around 118 new offshore wind turbines were installed and fully connected to the grid for providing a total of 333 MW power output which is more than half of the 577 MW output produced by the offshore wind turbines in the preceding year, and the total number of offshore wind turbines located in 43 fully functional offshore wind farms is 948 and the total power yield from them as 2396 MW thus indicating a strong growth during the current year. The report also provides details about the 151 wind turbines that produce around 440 MW of power output but yet to be connected to the grid.
The report details 16 offshore wind farms that are under erection and likely to generate an output of 3972 MW.Four wind farms among them such as Gunfleet Sands Robin Rigg in the UK, Alpha Ventus in Germany and Poseidon in Denmark have become fully functional.
The EWEA report details the percentage of participation by various wind farm developers such as Vattenfal (11%), Dong (21%) and E.ON Climate and Renewables 64% in improving the offshore grid connected capacity during the first half of 2010. Among the manufacturers of wind turbines, Siemens leads the table with 55% followed by Vestas 36% and REpower 9% during the same period.
The EWEA’s Director of Policy Justin Wilkes mentioned the marked growth of the wind industry during the recession period and the total number of wind turbine installed during the first half of the year 2010 surpassed the number of installations during the same period last year. He stressed the need for fiscal support for the growth of offshore wind energy which in turn can increase jobs in wind sector and reduce CO2 emissions.
Source: http://www.ewea.org/