German 2019 North Sea offshore wind output jumps 21% to 20.2 TWh

German North Sea offshore wind farms generated 20.2 TWh in 2019, up 21% on the year, system operator Tennet said Monday.

December itself set a new monthly record with output averaging 3.5 GW, peaking at 6.1 GW on December 5.

Annual output averaged 2.3 GW in 2019, almost doubling since 2016.

On Friday the Albatros/Hohe See joint project completed grid connection, having been generating since October. The 610-MW offshore wind farm is Germany's largest to date.

The wind farm, co-owned by EnBW and Canadian pipeline operator Enbridge, is forecast to generate 2.5 TWh a year.

North Sea transmission capacity reached 7.1 GW last summer, Tennet said.

"With three other offshore grid connections currently being implemented, we will be capable of delivering 10 GW of transmission capacity from the North Sea in 2025 in Germany alone," Tennet's managing director for Germany, Tim Meyerjuergens, said.

Meyerjuergens said some 3.5 GW of new offshore wind transmission capacity was planned in the Netherlands by 2023, and gave an end-2020 start date for the NordLink project connecting Norway and Germany.

German North Sea wind capacity was 6.4 GW by end-December.

Total German offshore capacity, including the Baltic Sea, was 7.5 GW, with only the 200-MW Borkum 2 project set to be completed this year.

Insolvency of turbine maker Senvion has delayed the project, with the final 16 turbines set to come online before the summer, developer Trianel has said.

North Sea commissioning takes a breather until 2022, when RWE's 325-MW Kaskasi wind farm is due to be completed, the first German North Sea project awarded via auction.

Last September, the government boosted the 2030 offshore wind target by 5 GW to 20 GW.

Offshore wind association BWO said 2 GW of additional capacity could be realized before 2026.

Some 660 MW of spare transmission capacity in the North Sea could be auctioned, while Baltic Sea projects at Gennaker (900 MW) and two other sites had or were nearing state approval.

GERMAN OFFSHORE WIND PROJECTS AUCTIONED 2017/18

Source: BNetzA, developers