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Good report. Promising developments. Have you any handy tables/charts comparing on/off shore wind as a proportion of total electricity production by country? Or trends both past and planned? I'm trying to get a handle on the trends in the proportional contribution of wind to the total electricity supply mix.

Index of Frank's Diaries
by Frank Schnittger (mail Frankschnittger at hot male dotty communists) on Thu Jan 19th, 2012 at 12:31:36 PM EST
the statistics are available, but they are without significant meaning at this stage. 2011 capacity installations are not yet available (except for the release of the offshore report) though they will come in the next days. But the EU-27 will not reach 100,000 MW cumulative for the past year, though close.

So the offshore totals of 3,800 have a still relatively minor effect on total output. Also, the majority of offshore projects are in the same lands with the greatest concentration of onshore wind.

Each MW of offshore wind will have a greater effect on % of generation though, as capacity factors for offshore, hovering above 40%, greatly exceed capacity factors onshore, which range from 23% to the mid 30s.

So, the distinction between onshore and offshore as a percent of total demand is too soon to really quantify.

The latest numbers for the whole mix should be available within days. The press conference in Berlin for the German numbers will be 26 Jan.

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin

by Crazy Horse on Thu Jan 19th, 2012 at 01:06:04 PM EST
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Many thanks. It would also be interesting to compare capacity utilisation factors for wind with gas, coal and nuclear plants!

Index of Frank's Diaries
by Frank Schnittger (mail Frankschnittger at hot male dotty communists) on Thu Jan 19th, 2012 at 01:46:07 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Yu can find the actual capacity numbers for Germany (2008) in this comment by DoDo in an old diary.

Offshore wind in the North Sea is at least at 40%, so as much as (load following) gas and coal but much more than onshore wind.

Wind power

by Jerome a Paris (etg@eurotrib.com) on Thu Jan 19th, 2012 at 02:12:22 PM EST
[ Parent ]
From a Spanish site:


The offshore wind power capacity installed by the end of 2011 will produce, in a normal wind year, 14 TWh of electricity, enough to cover 0.4% of the EU's total consumption.

The UK is by far the largest wind energy market with 2,094 MW installed, representing over half of all installed offshore wind farm capacity in Europe. Denmark follows with 857 MW (23%), then the Netherlands (247 MW, 6%), Germany (200 MW, 5%), Belgium (195, 5%), Sweden (164, 4%), Finland (26 MW in near-shore projects) and Ireland 25 MW. Norway and Portugal both have a full-scale e floating turbine (2.3 MW and 2 MW respectively).



"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin
by Crazy Horse on Thu Jan 19th, 2012 at 02:44:45 PM EST
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