New offshore wind capacity increased by a third last year, 90% of which was in EU waters, according to the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC). For the first time, more than 1GW was installed in the space of a year. Just under 1.3GW of offshore capacity came online in 2012.
Ten developers accounted for more than 70% of last year’s new European offshore capacity, with GWEC ranking their market share as follows:
- Dong, 19%
- Statoil, 12%
- Statkraft, 12%
- RWE, 9%
- SSE, 8%
- E.ON, 6%
- Vattenfall, 3%
- Nuhma, 3%
- Centrica, 2%
- EDF, 1%.
GWEC's latest annual market update forecasts total European capacity will reach 8.3GW by the end of 2014, based on 14 projects under construction this year and next.
Despite slow progress in China and uncertainty about the eventual level of financial support in Japan, GWEC expects both countries to develop significant offshore wind assets, in the long term. It also highlights the offshore wind ambitions of Taiwan and South Korea.
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