Energy Numbers

Thanks to the wonderful statisticians and data managers at ENS and Energinet​.DK, we have a large amount of detailed data from Danish onshore and offshore wind farms. Here’s one quick cut of it: the average capacity factors, to date of every Danish offshore wind farm. The relatively new wind farm Horns Rev II has the best capacity factor to date, with a striking 46.7%

Danish windfarms also include the most productive wind turbines in the world, at Rønland I: the turbines have been operating for over 8 years now, with a lifetime capacity factor of 44.1%; of its eight turbines, four are rated at 2.3MW peak power, and each had by the end of February 2011 generated over 70 GWh — a world record for individual wind turbines.

Calculation method

The capacity figures are calculated by calculating, for each turbine in a given wind farm, the number of hours since it was first connected to the grid. This is then multiplied by its capacity, to give the number of peak-MW-hours. These figures are summed across all turbines in a wind farm, and divided into the total energy generated by that wind farm, to give its capacity factor.

Sources

ENS register of Danish wind turbines: thanks to ENS and to Energinet​.DK for making the turbine-specific data behind this table available.