Offshore Wind in Europe – Key trends and statistics 2020

Europe added 2.9 GW of offshore capacity during 2020. That’s 356 new offshore wind turbines connected to the grid, across nine wind farms. Europe now has a total installed offshore wind capacity of 25 GW. That corresponds to 5,402 grid-connected wind turbines across 12 countries.

Eight new offshore wind projects reached Final Investment Decision (FID) in four different countries during 2020, with construction due to start in the coming years. Investments in new assets accounted for €26.3bn and 7.1 GW of additional capacity was financed.

Offshore wind installations in 2020

• Europe added 2,918 MW of new capacity. The Netherlands (1,493 MW), Belgium (706 MW), the UK (483 MW), Germany (219 MW) and Portugal (17 MW) supplied this new capacity to the grid.
• The European grid saw 356 offshore wind turbines connected across nine wind farms in 2020.
• Europe saw nine new wind farms completed (gridconnected). One has partial grid connection and will be fully commissioned in 2021. Construction work started on six other wind farms where no turbines have yet been grid-connected.
• Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy connected 63% of new turbines to the grid. Vestas Wind Systems connected 34%, while the remaining 3% were Senvion turbines.

Financing highlights

• Europe saw a financing record of €26.3bn for new projects. There was 7.1 GW of new capacity financed in France, the Netherlands and the UK.
• The two largest wind farms – Hollandse Kust Zuid 1-4 (1.5 GW) and Dogger Bank A and B (2.4 GW) – together raised almost €13bn in capital.
• Overall, the UK and Germany have attracted the most investments over the past ten years.
• Corporates signed six offshore Power Purchase Agreements in 2020 in Germany, Belgium, and the UK.

Trends: turbine and wind farm size, depth, distance from shore, auctions

• The average rated capacity of turbines installed in 2020 was 8.2 MW, with two-thirds of the wind farms with offshore works in 2020 using turbines larger than this.
• The average size of wind farms was 788 MW, 26% larger than last year.
• The average distance to shore was 52 km and the water depth 44 m.
• The Hollandse Kust Noord V was the only auction this year – a consortium of Shell New Energies and Eneco won.
• GE Renewable Energy received the largest order for wind turbines, from SSE and Equinor for the Dogger Bank (A and B) in the UK. The project will feature 190 GE Haliade-X 13 MW turbines.

Cumulative installations

• There are 5,402 turbines connected to the grid, totalling 25,014 MW.
• There are now 116 offshore wind farms in 12 European countries (including one site with partial grid- connected turbines).
• The UK has the largest offshore wind capacity in Europe, with 42% of all installations. Germany is second with 31%, followed by the Netherlands (10%), Belgium (9%) and Denmark (7%).
• Ørsted (17%), RWE Renewables (10%), Vattenfall (6%) and Macquarie Capital (6%) are the largest owners of offshore wind farms.