In 2014, European offshore wind farm produced about 10.393 megawatt-hour. European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) estimates that it’s the equivalent of the energy produced by ten nuclear reactors.
Offshore wind farms are now producing as many energy as nuclear plants.
In the last few years, offshore wind farms have known a significant growth on European territory, led by the growing interest of UK, Germany and British, German and Netherlands, for this technology.
Since the beginning of 2015, 580 new plants have been connected to the grid, bringing to 3.072 the total of functional offshore european wind farms.
These plants are located in 82 farms, in 11 different countries. A hundred other turbines have been delivered and planted, but they’re still waiting for their grid connection.
Furthermore, investors are more likely than before to finance a offshore wind farm project. Five 1.800 megawatt-hour projects are expected to be released shortly. It will be a 1,7 billions euros investment.
In France, six offshore wind farms are currently under studies.
Siemens, the market leader
The manufacturer Siemens is the industry leader in Europe (2/3 of the shares in the end of 2014). It has produced more than half of the turbines settled since the beginning of the year (54,9%).
Next are MHI Vestas (19% of the market shares), and Adwen (15,6%) – a joint venture between Gamesa and Areva.