News

Today, the European Commission adopted the fourth list of Projects of Common Interest (PCI) for a connected European energy grid, fit for the future providing clean, affordable and secure energy for Europeans.

The PROMOTioN project will be present at the European WindEUROPE Offshore exhibition and conference from 26 to 28 November in Copenhagen. Two side events will present important regulatory and technological interim results.

On 20th September the British government announced the winners of the CfD contracts for offshore wind farms of the „Round 3“ projects. A total of 5,466 MW were awarded to 6 projects, the average price for all projects being 40.67 GBP/MWh (4.6 cents/kWh), with grid connection in the UK being part of the scope of the project. This represents a further cost reduction of around one third compared to the last round in 2017.

British Energy Secretary Claire Perry announced on 7th March the launch of the offshore wind sector agreement between government and industry for the UK. Offshore wind energy is expected to cover one third of the UK`s electricity needs by 2030 with an installed capacity of 30 GW.

At the beginning of March, a new project of the German OFFSHORE-WINDENERGIE foundation was launched, which is intended to create the further conceptual, technical and logistical prerequisites for the construction of a national test field for offshore wind energy. The new test field to be built is part of the coalition agreement of the Federal Government. It has already been designated as an area in the in the spatial development programme of the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania since mid-2016.

Europe installed 2.6 GW of new offshore wind energy capacity in 2018, according to statistics released today by WindEurope. That’s an 18% increase in Europe’s offshore wind capacity.

Another milestone reached in the PROMOTioN (Progress on Meshed HVDC Offshore Transmission Networks) project. ABB has successfully completed the installation of the 320 kV HVDC gas insulated switchgear (GIS) test equipment in the DNV GL’s KEMA High Voltage DC Laboratory in Kleefse Waard, Arnhem, Netherlands.

On June 6, 2018, the midterm conference of PROMOTioN took place in Amsterdam. With over 150 participants, the conference was very well attended, not only by the project partners but also by numerous representatives of transmission system operators, offshore wind turbine manufacturers, politicians and state agencies, operators and developers of offshore wind farms, associations, academia, as well as (technical) service providers and consultancies.

The new video „PROMOTioN in a nutshell“ visualizes the work of the EU-funded research project PROMOTioN, which the FOUNDATION OFFSHORE WIND ENERGY is involved with. Within this project 33 partners from 11 countries analyze the positive effects of the development of a common offshore power grid infrastructure, in particular on the basis of meshed high-voltage direct-current transmission technology (HVDC). HIER ANSCHAUEN

A recent study, that was comissioned by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, found a significant increase in employment within the field of renewable energies. According to the study 338,600 people were employed in this field in 2016, displaying an increase of 10,000 employees compared to the previous year. The offshore wind energy sector even saw its total number of employees rise to 27,200, which equals an increase of 20 %.