IRENA: ‘Accelerate International Cooperation on Floating Wind to Prevent Development of Silos’

August 21, 2024, by Adrijana Buljan

As of 2023, there was around 270 MW of floating wind capacity in operation, with the global pipeline for new floating projects standing at 244 GW, according to a market outlook report commissioned by the 2023 Japanese G7 Presidency and issued by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).

According to the report, meeting the 1.5°C goal requires 494 GW of offshore wind capacity on the grids globally by 2030 and 2,465 GW by 2050. Still, despite progress in building new offshore wind farms, there was a total of 63 GW of installed capacity in 2022. And just as there are calls to help the global offshore wind industry bring projects to realisation faster, the floating wind industry is seeing recommendations and initiatives to scale up the industry, bring the costs down and roll our floating wind farms more quickly.

In the floating offshore wind outlook, issued this July, IRENA outlines several observations with recommended actions to help put floating wind on a fast track.

Among the recommendations is for the countries having floating wind industry to accelerate international cooperation, as floating offshore wind is currently concentrated in certain markets. Although the floating wind industry is still nascent, it is expected to expand and IRENA says that “it is imperative that, from the start, international cooperation in this field continues to scale up and prevent the development of silos”.

To achieve this, the Agency suggests that G7 members cooperate with IRENA’s Collaborative Framework to collect and disseminate key trends and learnings from floating offshore wind. The report also states countries should continue to participate in joint research projects within the G7 as well as other countries, leveraging the strengths of each entity.

“To drive international co-operation, there is a need to continue developing joint R&D programmes and projects on floating offshore wind. This is already happening in this space, for example with Japan entering partnerships with Denmark and Norway to leverage these countries’ strong track record on offshore wind to replicate similar successes within the Japanese national context”, the report reads.

For policy and regulations, IRENA says that there will be a growing need to ensure that policy frameworks such as energy roadmaps and Nationally Determined Contributions include specific provisions on floating wind to help reduce its levelised cost of energy (LCOE) and scale up the industry. One of the actions the Agency lists in its recommendations is setting long-term deployment and cost-reduction targets for floating offshore wind, in line with the 2030 Agenda and beyond.

The report further also calls for directing more resources and investment towards existing floating wind solutions, in consultation with the industry, to promote economies of scale.

IRENA also notes that, while the coupling of floating wind and hydrogen is currently not a priority for the industry, pilot initiatives are demonstrating the potential opportunities so continued innovation and investment in this space should be encouraged.

In the report, IRENA listed a total of eleven observations, each accompanied by recommended action points.

“The industry is still at a very nascent stage, which provides a unique opportunity for the international community to work together symbiotically on a relatively ‘blank canvas’ to make this technology commercially viable as soon as possible”, IRENA stated in the report’s conclusion.

“The observations and recommendations provided in this report are vectors that can greatly accelerate the development of this promising technology. The G7 members, with their vast capabilities, are in a pole position to cross this new frontier whose potential awaits to be unleashed.”