The European offshore wind industry attracted a record EUR 14 billion in new investments during the first six months of 2016, with seven projects reaching final investment decision this year, financing a total of 3.7GW of new capacity. The UK accounted for nearly three-quarters of the new investments, the European wind energy association WindEurope said in a statement.

The volume of new grid-connected installations in the first half of 2016 was 511 MW, 78% down on the same period in 2015, but this is expected to pick up next year and toward 2020, the statement said.

WindEurope CEO Giles Dickson noted that the record investment numbers showed a clear industry commitment to offshore wind. However, he injected a note of caution. “We expect installations will pick up significantly in 2017 but there are a lot of challenges out there still on offshore wind. Not least the uncertainty over future volumes and regulation in many key markets for the period after 2020. We’re a long way from being able to say job done on offshore wind,” he said.

According to the WindEurope report on 2016 mid-year offshore statistics, total installed offshore wind capacity in Europe now stands at 11,538 MW across 82 wind farms in 11 countries. Only Germany (258 MW) and the Netherlands (253 MW) added new capacity in the first 6 months. The average size of the 114 new turbines installed was 4.8 MW, up from 4.2 MW a year ago.

Dickson added: “The costs of offshore wind are falling, but we need healthy volumes in the market to sustain this. The current pipeline of projects is not enough, and the commitments Member States have so far made for beyond 2020 fall well short of what’s needed. This risks undermining Europe’s competitive position in offshore wind. We’re number one today with over 90% of the world’s capacity, but the US and China are now moving to rapidly expand their offshore wind investments.”