Power production from German North Sea wind farms from January to June totaled 9.51 terawatt hours (TWh), 16% more than in the same 2018 period, grid company TenneT GmbH said on Monday.
TenneT, the German arm of the bigger Dutch transmission network group, said offshore wind from North Sea turbines had retained a 15% share of Germany's total wind power production of nearly 64 TWh in the six months.
The company plays a key role in the sector because it is responsible for linking North Sea wind farms to onshore grids in the states of Lower Saxony and Schleswig Holstein.
Its German North Sea connection capacity already outstrips that of existing wind parks and will grow to nearly 9 gigawatts (GW) by 2024 from 6.2 GW in 2018, it said.
The government has a target of 6.5 GW national offshore capacity by 2020, and wind park operators had constructed 5.6 GW of wind generation turbines by the end of June.
TenneT operates platforms and converter stations to turn direct current electricity from the offshore turbines into alternating current used in onshore power systems.
TenneT's investments are refinanced by grid fee income that is collected from power consumers as part of their bills.
The Berlin government's offshore target, part of its renewable energy plan to move to a low carbon economy, also counts in more modestly sized plants in the Baltic Sea.
These are being connected to the onshore grids by TenneT peer 50Hertz.
Baltic Sea turbines produced 2.1 TWh in the first six months, TenneT said.
(Reporting by Vera Eckert; Editing by Edmund Blair)