Statistics supplied by several clean energy market analysts show Germany’s offshore wind sector is gaining momentum.

Research conducted by DEWI (UL International GmbH), one of the first service providers supporting the wind energy industry, said 2014 was a milestone year for the offshore wind sector. In 2014, 324 wind turbines with a total capacity of 1437.4 MW offshore were built, and 142 wind turbines with a capacity of 529 MW started to feed electricity into the grid. That translated to more than 2.3 GW of power produced by offshore wind turbines in Germany.

Evidence of Germany’s robust offshore wind sector is corroborated by other market observers. According to figures supplied by Germany Trade and Invest (GTAI), more than 90 per cent of offshore generation capacity is installed off the coastlines of northern Europe, with the North and Baltic Seas surrounding Germany making a large contribution.

A glimpse at some of the offshore projects producing energy in 2015: the offshore windpark Borkum Riffgrund 1 (operational in February) fed electricity into the grid for the first time. February also saw the first turbines installed at the 288 MW Amrumbank West site, as well as the start of operations at Europe’s first purely communal offshore windpark, Trianel Windpark Borkum, where forty 5 MW turbines are being brought online successively. Then there’s the Butendiek offshore windpark, where the first 24 turbines have started delivering power. Lastly, engineers working on EnBW Baltic 2 celebrated reaching the half-way mark when the fortieth of 80 turbines was completed in January.

“The German offshore wind market is really taking off,” said Esther Frey, wind energy market expert at Germany Trade & Invest. “We expect 3 GW of offshore capacity to be feeding in to the grid by the end of 2015 – even more will be installed awaiting connection."

This continues the positive trend from last year, accordng to Frey, who notes that more than 5 GW of new on- and offshore capacity started delivering clean power to the grid.