WindEurope Spotlights Turkey’s Floating Wind Potential

Turkey has a huge floating offshore wind potential and could significantly support the deployment of the floating offshore wind technology, WindEurope said during a recent workshop in Istanbul entitled “Leveraging the EU offshore wind expertise in Turkey”.

Turkey has extremely good wind resources, both on- and offshore, but very deep waters, WindEurope said. 80% of the total offshore wind resources in Europe are in waters that are over 60 metres deep, where bottom-fixed technologies are neither economically nor technically feasible, according to WindEurope.

Floating offshore wind could play a significant role in Europe to ensure the deployment of at least 6 GW/year by 2030.

The workshop was organised by 3E with the support of the Turkish Wind Energy Association and WindEurope. It gathered around 100 people from the industrial, financial, academic and governmental sector. Interventions from the Turkish Wind Energy Association, 3E, DEME Group and WindEurope presented the latest trends and developments in offshore wind energy in Europe: offshore wind turbine structures and functioning; floating wind; cost reductions; technical innovations; grid connection for offshore wind farms; and logistics and installation.

Turkey recently kick-started its offshore wind power market by launching a tender for building a capacity of 1,200 MW. The ceiling for support is established at 80 USD/MWh. The tender will close in October this year, at which point all bids received will be evaluated. Three different sites have been identified as potentially viable for installation. All three sites are nearshore, allowing for bottom-fixed wind turbines to be installed.