Study Identifies 54 Potential Floating Offshore Wind Hot Spots

Offshore Wind Consultants (OWC) has developed a market study that has identified 54 territories as potential floating offshore wind markets.

“This study provides an insight into the where, when and how floating offshore wind can develop to become a global industry, and hence plays a critical role in delivering a global net-zero. The study pinpoints the leading markets to deliver on a possible 10GW by 2030, and identifies how these markets can pave the way for widespread deployment across the globe in the later 2030s and 2040s,” said Ralph Torr, Head of Floating wind at Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult.

OWC, which is doing the study for ORE Catapult’s Floating Offshore Wind Centre of Excellence, analysed over 240 territories for their potential readiness for floating offshore wind development.

Each territory was assessed against minimum technical thresholds, says OWC, such as coastal access, offshore wind resources and bathymetry, and by additional socio-economic filters to support investments in commercial-scale floating offshore wind.

According to OWC’s report, 54 territories passed all thresholds which then were further evaluated in terms of their short-term or long-term readiness for commercial floating offshore wind development based on eleven custom-developed criteria spanning three categories.

These categories were technical resource and policy drivers, commercial investment landscape, and floating offshore wind market facilitators.

The number of countries that fall into the category for short-term development of floating offshore wind within the period of 2022-2025 is 22, spanning Europe, the Americas, and the Asia Pacific, while 32 territories fall into the long-term category from 2035 to 2050, including countries in Africa, said OWC.

You can access the report here: https://ore.catapult.org.uk/?orecatapultreports=fow-coe-international-market-opportunities-summary-report

“Floating offshore wind will be critical to offshore wind’s role in the future energy mix, but it also brings its own challenges and opportunities, which means that all offshore wind markets are not ready or suitable for future development,” said Craig Brown, Principal Consultant at OWC.

“This study provides a critical blueprint of that global expansion, identifying the markets to watch in terms of short-term or long-term readiness as a major floating wind player”.

Today, there is 113 MW of floating wind in operation in Europe, with this to rise to over 300 MW within the next two years as the 88 MW Hywind Tampen in Norway and four 30 MW projects in France will be up and running.

From 2024, things will start to scale up big time, WindEurope said in a press release at the beginning of this month.

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