Autumn Storms Push German Wind Farms to New Production Highs

German offshore wind farms generated 2.2 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity in October 2017, a 69.2% increase compared to 1.3 TWh of electricity generated offshore Germany in October 2016.

According to the data compiled by the Institute of the Renewable Energy Industry (Internationales Wirtschaftsforum Regenerative Energien), October 2017 broke the record for renewable energy generation in Germany.

14.6 TWh of green electricity was generated by wind and solar farms in Germany last month, representing a 44% share of total energy production in the country. The second busiest month in terms of renewable energy production in Germany was March 2017 when 12.5 TWh of green electricity was generated.

The vast majority of green energy, or 12.5 TWh of it, came from German wind farms in October. This is another record for Germany which has pushed the December 2015 result of 11.7 TWh of wind power generation to the second place.

The increase in wind production was attributed to the continuous expansion of wind energy in general as well as by favourable weather conditions, with a special emphasis on the two autumn storms: Xavier and Herwart.

At the end of October, Herwart attributed to the country’s new wind energy performance record. On October 28, between 19:00 and 20:00, German wind farms produced a total of 39,200 MW of electricity and fed it into the grid. The old record was 38,000 MW and was set on March 18, 2017.