Germany has overtaken the UK in the rate at which it is installing wind turbines at sea, industry figures show. Globally, wind installations grew by 25% in 2014, reaching a landmark 62,000 MW of capacity, according to a separate report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF). More than 3,000 megawatts (MW) of offshore wind power was connected to the European grid last year – twice as much as in 2014 – with the vast majority coming from Germany. While Britain connected 556MW of offshore energy and the Netherlands 180MW, Germany added a massive 2,282MW. The UK still has the most installed offshore wind power in Europe, at 5,061MW to Germany’s total of 3,295MW. A spokesman for the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA), which published the figures, said that the UK had attracted more investment than Germany last year, but installed less capacity, as Germany cleared a backlog that had built up in 2014.
Guardian 2nd Feb 2016 read more »