German North Sea wind power share increases in first half 2021

The total share of German wind power produced by North Sea plants rose to 16.63 percent so far in 2021 despite an overall generation decrease compared to the first half 2020 due to calm weather, transmission grid operator TenneT has reported. According to a press release, wind power plants in the North Sea produced significantly less power in the first six months of this year due to a lack of strong winds. However, as this led to onshore wind farms’ yields being reduced even further, the total share of North Sea generated wind power rose 6.6 percent from January-June 2021. TenneT managing director Tim Meyerjürgens argued that this proves how essential an expansion of offshore wind energy production is for energy security. "Particularly in weaker wind years, the ratio of wind energy generated shifts towards offshore," he said. "There, we generate on average around twice as many full load hours as onshore, and can therefore partially compensate for lulls onshore."

The weak wind conditions seen this year also pushed up fossil fuel use (primary energy consumption), with the country using 11 percent more natural gas, 9 percent more hard coal and 26 percent more lignite than in the first quarter than the previous year. Overall, the renewables share in public power supply was at 42.7 percent, compared to 55.6 percent in Q1 of 2020.