According to the European wind power association WindEurope, the European offshore wind capacity grew by 2.6 GW in 2018. This entails about 400 turbines spread across 18 projects. 85% of the new capacity was deployed in the United Kingdom (UK) (1.3 GW) and in Germany (969 MW). 309 MW were added in Belgium and 61 MW in Denmark, whereas 10 MW were retired in Sweden. At year end, the UK had the largest amount of offshore wind capacity in Europe, followed by Germany, Denmark, Belgium and the Netherlands.
Most of the new grid connections registered in 2018 were located in the North Sea (62%), followed by the Irish Sea (15%) and the Baltic Sea (14%). The North Sea alone currently accounts for approximately 70% of all offshore wind capacity in Europe. WindEurope also reports that the average size of offshore wind turbines continued to increase and stood at 6.8 MW in 2018, 15% up on the previous year. As for the project owners, Ørsted connected the largest amount of wind capacity in 2018, followed by E.ON, Global Infrastructure Partners, Equinor and Macquarie Capital. More than 60% of all the new capacity in 2018 was supplied by Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE), while 1/3 was brought online by MHI Vestas Offshore Wind.
In 2018, 12 new offshore wind projects reached the Final Investment Decision (FID) stage, which corresponds to investments of €10.3bn and 4.2 GW of additional capacity expected to come onstream in the next decade. Half of these investments will be concentrated in the United Kingdom (€5.4bn, corresponding to 3 projects totalling 1,858 MW), followed by Belgium (€1.8bn for two projects totalling 706 MW), the Netherlands (€1.4bn, 732 MW project), and Denmark (€1.1bn for the 605 MW Kriegers Flak project).