Wind power in Germany

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Erection of an Enercon E70-4 in Germany

In 2010, the installed capacity of wind power in Germany was 27.2 GW.^[1] Wind power currently produces about six percent of Germany’s total electrical power. More than 21,607 wind turbines are located in the German federal area and the country has plans to build more wind turbines.^[2]^[3] As of 2011, Germany's federal government is working on a new plan for increasing renewable energy commercialization^[4], with a particular focus on offshore wind farms.^[5]

[edit] Overview

As of 2010, Wind power in Germany provides over 96,100 people with jobs and German wind energy systems are also exported.^[2]^[6] The Fuhrländer Wind Turbine Laasow, built in 2006 near the village of Laasow, Brandenburg, is the tallest wind turbine in the world. Also most other of the tallest wind turbines in the world are situated in Germany, see List of wind turbines.

At Germany, there are also most of the most powerful wind turbines in the world, the Enercon E-126.

However, the economics of wind power in Germany are under close scrutiny^[7] and there are other issues which deserve consideration. These include the effect of wind turbines on the landscape, the effect on the bird population, and the effect on the tourist industry.^[2]

[edit] Repowering

Repowering, the replacement of first-generation wind turbines with modern multi-megawatt machines, is occurring in Germany. Modern turbines make better use of available wind energy and so more wind power can come from the same area of land. Modern turbines also offer much better grid integration since they use a connection method similar to conventional power plants.^[8]^[9]

[edit] Offshore wind power

Offshore wind energy also has great potential in Germany.^[10] Wind speed at sea is 70 to 100% higher than onshore and much more constant. A new generation of 5 MW or larger wind turbines which are capable of making full use of the potential of wind power at sea has already been developed and prototypes are available. This makes it possible to operate offshore wind farms in a cost-effective way once the usual initial difficulties of new technologies have been overcome.^[11]

On 15 July 2009, the first offshore German windturbine completed construction. This turbine is the first of a total of 12 wind turbines for the alpha ventus offshore wind farm in the North Sea.^[12]

Following the 2011 Japanese nuclear accidents, Germany's federal government is working on a new plan for increasing renewable energy commercialization, with a particular focus on offshore wind farms.^[13] Under the plan large wind turbines will be erected far away from the coastlines, where the wind blows more consistently than it does on land, and where the enormous turbines won't bother the inhabitants. The plan aims to decrease Germany's dependence on energy derived from coal and nuclear power plants.^[5] The German government wants to see 7.6 GW installed by 2020 and as much as 26 GW by 2030, but this schedule is probably too ambitious.^[14]

[edit] Statistics

Wind Power Capacity (red; MW) and Generated Energy (blue; GWh), using a logarithmic scale, for the years 1990-2010

Increases in installed wind power capacity and generation in recent years is shown in the table below:^[15]

Year	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000
Installed Capacity (MW)	55	106	174	326	618	1,121	1,549	2,080	2,877	4,439	6,097
Generation (GW·h)	71	100	275	600	909	1,500	2,032	2,966	4,489	5,528	7,550
% of total electricity consumption	0.01	0.02	0.05	0.1	0.2	0.3	0.4	0.5	0.8	1.0	1.3

Year	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010
Installed Capacity (MW)	6,097	8,750	11,989	14,604	16,623	18,390	20,579	22,194	23,836	25,716	27,209
Generation (GW·h)	7,550	10,509	15,786	18,713	25,509	27,229	30,710	39,713	40,574	38,639	37,793
% of total electricity consumption	1.3	1.8	2.7	3.1	4.2	4.4	5.0	6.4	6.6	6.7	6.2

Year	2010	2011^[16]	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020
Installed Capacity (GW)	27.2	29.3
Onshore (GW)	27.1	29.1
Offshore (GW)	0.1	0.2
Generation (TW·h)	37.8
Onshore (TW·h)	37.6
Offshore (TW·h)	0.2
% of total electricity consumption	6.2

[edit] States

Map of German wind farms

In Saxony-Anhalt 48.11% of electricity was produced with wind power in 2011.^[17]

Share of the potential annual energy yield of the net electrical energy consumption in 2011:

State	No. Turbines	Installed Capacity [MW]	Share in the net electrical energy consumption [%]
Saxony-Anhalt	2,352	3,642.31	48.11
Brandenburg	3,053	4,600.51	47.65
Schleswig-Holstein	2,705	3,271.19	46.46
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern	1,385	1,627.30	46.09
Lower Saxony	5,501	7,039.42	24.95
Thuringia	601	801.33	12.0
Rhineland-Palatinate	1,177	1,662.63	9.4
Saxony	838	975.82	8.0
Bremen	73	140.86	4.7
North Rhine-Westphalia	2,881	3,070.86	3.9
Hesse	665	687.11	2.8
Saarland	89	127.00	2.5
Bavaria	486	683.60	1.3
Baden-Württemberg	378	486.38	0.9
Hamburg	60	53.40	0.7
Berlin	1	2.00	0.0
offshore North Sea	31	155.00
offshore Baltic Sea	21	48.30
Germany Total	22,297	29,075.02	9.9