Germany nears the 60GW mark

GERMANY: Onshore and offshore wind capacity totalled 56,164MW at the end of 2017, with a further 4.3GW likely to be added in 2018.

by Sara Knight 25 January 2018

Germany's wind fleet nears 60GW total capacity (pic: Siemens AG)

A new record 5,333MW of new onshore capacity was installed in Germany in 2017, 15% more than in 2016.

Taking into account repowering, net growth was 4,866MW, raising Germany's onshore fleet to 50,777MW from 28,675 wind turbines.

Onshore wind growth for 2018 is forecast at around 3.5GW by the German wind energy federation Bundesverband Windenergie (BWE) and the power systems division of German engineering federation Verband Deutscher Maschinen und Anlagenbau (VDMA).

New offshore wind capacity commissioned in 2017 reached 1.25GW, with capacity upgrades adding a further 29MW. This raised the German offshore fleet by 31% to 5.39GW in 2017, according to consultancy company Deutsche Windguard data.

With 20 offshore projects in operation as of the end of 2017, another two -- Merkur and Arkona -- totalling 781MW are in the construction phase.

Final investment decisions were taken at five more sites totalling 1.5GW, all due to be fully commissioned in 2019.