Germany wind sector grew in 2011
After a disappointing 2010, the former world leader in installed capacity once again installed more than two gigawatts last year.
According to the German Wind Energy Institute (Dewi), the German Wind Energy Association (BWE), and mechanical engineering association VDMA, the relatively large volume of newly installed wind capacity in southern Germany helped bring the total for the country up to 2,007 megawatts for the year. Up to now, almost all of German wind power capacity has been installed in the north. For instance, the southern state of Baden-Württemberg long had governments almost completely opposed to wind power, as was the case when the EU's current Energy Commissioner Oettinger was Prime Minister of that state. More turbines in the south would also take a load off the grid; at the moment, Germany is having trouble getting all of that wind power from the north down to cities in the south.
"In some southern German states, politicians are finally throwing their weight behind the wind sector, and it's about time," BWE president Hermann Albers told Renewables International. Baden-Württemberg is indeed the only state that still lags behind. Its new government with the Green Party at the helm was voted into office only last year and says the changes it is implementing have not yet had time to turn the local market around. Lower Saxony continues to be the leader, having installed 431 megawatts last year to bring the state above the seven gigawatt threshold.
Repowering advances
In terms of manufacturers, the market did not change much. Enercon remains the leader with nearly 60 percent of the market, followed by Denmark's Vestas, which managed to grow its market share by more than a fifth. And as Albers points out, "repowering is finally getting going." Last year, 95 new wind turbines with a capacity of 238 megawatts were set up to replace 170 old ones with a cumulative output of 123 megawatts. "These figures mean that repowering has finally reached critical mass for new installations," he adds.
The offshore sector is also slowly getting going, having added 108 megawatts last year. The Baltic 1 project became the first commercial offshore wind farm in Germany in April, and the Bard Group is successively installing its five-megawatt units; by the end of 2011, 16 of the 80 turbines planned were already generating power. "By the end of 2012, 10 offshore wind farms with a capacity of 2,000 megawatts will be under construction," says VDMA head Thorsten Herdan. Nonetheless, it will be some time before the offshore sector becomes larger than onshore. (Denny Gille / Craig Morris)
