February 2020 was a record month for wind energy in the Belgian North Sea :

• 804 GWh production (nb: measured at the Elia grid connection point) ;
• This corresponds to the annual consumption of 230,000 households (at 3,500 kWh/year/family) ;

This absolute record of offshore wind power production is due to :

1/ A higher installed capacity:

• The installed capacity has been increased this month by 60 MW, from 1556 to 1616 MW; this increase is due to the commissioning of the first wind turbines of Northwester 2 ;
• Compared to February 2019, installed capacity increased by 430 MW, or 36.5% (370 MW for Norther and 60 MW for Northwester 2).

2/ A record month in terms of wind conditions :

• The average capacity factor in February 2020 was 74%.
• The previous record was 70% in December 2015.
• Over the last 5 years, the average capacity factor for February was 53%.
• With a capacity factor of 53%, a production of 570 GWh can be expected – production in February was therefore approximately 40% higher this year than expected according to the five-year average.

Definition of capacity factor:

Energy produced (in MWh) divided by the installed capacity (in MW) and divided by the number of hours in the month (i.e. 24 hours * 29 days for February).

The capacity factor is the percentage of electricity produced in relation to what a wind farm could produce at maximum capacity if the wind farm operated at full capacity for the whole month.