24 Feb 2020 | 11:57 UTC — London

European wind sets second weekly record in a row averaging 88 GW

Highlights

68 GW year-to-date average up 15 GW on year: WindEurope

Fourth weekend in a row with negative hourly prices

Winds set to ease this week: Spotrenewables.com

London — European wind power generation averaged 88 GW last week, setting another new record and pushing hourly German power prices into negative territory over the weekend, data aggregated by WindEurope showed Monday.

Wind generation is now averaging 68 GW year to date, up 28% on the same period in 2019, with Europe's turbines generating an extra 20 TWh, the energy equivalent of 39 standard LNG cargoes.

Wind is forecast to ease this week across northwest Europe, and German wind is set to average 23 GW this week versus a record 37 GW last week, according to spotrenewables.com and TSO data aggregated by Fraunhofer ISE.

German spot power prices recorded a fourth consecutive weekend of negative hourly power prices with the second negative day-ahead settlement for Saturday (February 22), exchange data show.

Week 8 spot power again averaged well below Eur20/MWh, as it did in Week 7, compared to average levels above Eur40/MWh for those two weeks last year.

February is now on track for a monthly record (averaging 79 GW for the first 23 days) after December/January averaged around 62 GW.

There was 205 GW of wind turbine capacity installed across Europe by end-2019 after 15 GW were added last year, WindEurope data show.

European Wind: Weekly Generation (GW, hourly average)

2019
2020
week 1
48.8
50
week 2
70.2
61.9
week 3
53
71.4
week 4
44.6
45.2
week 5
49.4
82.7
week6
60.7
63.1
week 7
51.2
85.1
week 8
43.1
88.1

Source: WindEurope (based on aggregated TSO data), S&P Global Platts

Editor:

Alisdair Bowles