Wind energy in Germany and Europe. Pt. 2. Status, potentials and challenges for baseload application: European situation in 2017

Wind power is a cornerstone of rebuilding the electricity supply system completely into a renewable system, in Germany referred to as ''Energiewende'' (i.e. energy transition). Wind power is scalable, but as intermittent renewable energy can only supply electrical power at any time reliably (security of supply) in conjunction with dispatchable backup systems. This fact has been shown in the first part of the VGB Wind Study, dealing with operating experience of wind turbines in Germany from 2010 to 2016. This study states among other things that despite vigorous expansion of on- and offshore wind power to about 50,000 MW (92% onshore, 8% offshore) at year-end 2016 and contrary to the intuitive assumption that widespread distribution of about 28,000 wind turbines, hereinafter referred to as German wind fleet, should lead to balanced aggregate power output, no increase in annual minimum power output has been detected since 2010, each of which accounted for less than 1 % of the relevant nominal capacity.