Offshore Wind Power On Track For 7th Consecutive Year Of Record Growth

Electricity forms the basis of modern society and so new ways of generating electricity are always welcomed. Inhabitat reports that offshore wind power, one of those new ways of generating electricity, is having a great year so far in 2013 and looks set to record its 7th consecutive year of record growth.

Countries leading the charge towards offshore wind include the UK, with a capacity of 3461 MW and Denmark, with a capacity of 1274 MW. China, Belgium and Germany are also following suit with a strong investment into offshore wind.

As it stands 1080 MW went online in the first six months of 2013, which has increased global offshore wind power capacity by 20% to 6500 MW across 15 countries. Offshore Wind capacity is currently growing at a rate of about 40% per year.

The UK managed to add 500 MW of offshore wind capacity in the first half of 2013 with an additional 12000 MW of offshore wind capacity under construction or in the planning stages. The USA on the other hand continues to disappoint with just 0.2 MW of installed capacity despite the Eastern Seaboard of the USA being one of the best places in the world from which to extract offshore wind energy. The Eastern Seaboard of the USA is estimated to have the potential to provide 530,000 MW of electricity – that is 81X the current global capacity of offshore wind energy.

Image courtesy of DEFRA