German Offshore Wind Farms Breeze Past Annual Generation Record

German offshore wind farms have generated over 17 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity in 2017, according to the data compiled by the Institute of the Renewable Energy Industry (Internationales Wirtschaftsforum Regenerative Energien).

Borkum Riffgrund 1. Image source: Ørsted

Compared to 12.3 TWh of electricity produced in 2016, the wind farms offshore Germany delivered 38.2% more power to the grid by 27 December this year.

The rise in the generation is most likely due to an increase in offshore wind capacity and favourable wind conditions, especially the record-breaking October.

Offshore wind has this year shown the strongest growth among renewable energy sources in Germany, according to IWR

Overall, German wind farms produced 100 TWh of electricity by 27 December. Last year, that number was 78.6 TWh.

Wind will be the second largest contributor to the energy mix in Germany, right after brown coal (148 TWh), the data shows.