Britain has leapt ahead of the rest of Europe with the installation of offshore wind farms in the first six months of 2010. The latest figures show that the United Kingdom was responsible for more than 50% of European wind-power installations in the first half of this year.
The European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) released the latest data on wind power in Europe. It said offshore wind-power capacity in Europe expanded at record speed in the first six months of 2010. Despite a paucity of available investment funds, power capacity from offshore wind farms rose to 2.5 gigawatts, a 300 per cent rise compared to 2006.
In the UK, 147 turbines were installed at eight offshore wind farms in the first half of 2010. This represents a total capacity of 455 megawatts. Across Europe a total of 743 megawatts of new offshore wind-power capacity was installed in the same period. In second place was Denmark, with installed capacity of 179 megawatts. Belgium was next, with 99 megawatts, followed by Germany, at 10 megawatts.
In the period accounted for by the figures, a total of 16 offshore wind farms with combined capacity of 3,972 megawatts were being built. Four went into operation, two in the UK, one in Denmark and one in Germany.
According to the EWEA, 118 new offshore turbines were connected to the power grid in the first six months of the year. They have a combined capacity of 333 megawatts. This represents more than half of the total 577 megawatts of offshore wind power that was installed throughout Europe in 2009.
|
|
