Floating Offshore Wind Market Review
Clarksons Research has released onto its Renewables Intelligence Network (RIN) platform a new briefing profiling the floating offshore wind sector, examining capacity trends, the maritime supply chain and key projects in the industry. Reviewing the data, Steve Gordon, Managing Director of Clarksons Research commented:
- While “floating wind” is only a small part of the offshore wind industry today (only 10 projects of 124 MW are active, with a further 8 projects of 165 MW under construction), strong growth is expected from the middle of the 2020s as the sector reaches commercialisation (our projections suggest that 96 farms, 14.5 GW, 1,300 turbines could be active by 2030).
- Floating wind is likely to open up new regional markets, where development has so far been unfeasible. Countries with significant numbers of floating wind projects already proposed include the UK (31.1 GW), Australia (13.8 GW) and the US (10.7 GW). Over 150 potential floating offshore wind projects (totalling over 100 GW) have been mooted by developers in 21 countries/regions, with 37 of these projects having nameplate capacities >1 GW.
- As the floating sector moves towards commercialisation, the industry has proposed a wide variety of foundation designs (at least 12 so far). Semi-sub foundations are most common in projects proposed to date (over 1,200 mooted, compared to the combined ~350 across Spar, barge and TLP turbines solutions).
- Floating wind poses new installation challenges for developers and our analysis examines which contractors and yards have already been active in the sector, as well as profiling the demands on the installation and support fleet, port infrastructure and the unique maintenance requirements of floating wind farms.
- Leading developers of floating wind to date include Equinor (2 farms, 32 MW active, with 1 farm / 88 MW under development), Cobra (2 farms, 50 MW active), Ocean Winds (1 farm, 30 MW active) and Windplus (1 farm, 25 MW active). In terms of potential capacity, leading developers include BlueFloat (8.5 GW), Hexicon (7.7 GW), Oceanex (7.4 GW), Aqua Ventus (5.1 GW) and Scottish Power (5.0 GW). Contractors involved in turbine installation to date have included DOF Subsea (11 turbines under development), Saipem (5 turbines installed) , Bourbon (5) and Boskalis (5).
- The broader offshore wind industry continues its exciting growth phase and our long term scenarios suggest offshore wind will play a vital role in energy transition and may provide between 6% and 9% of global energy supply by 2050 (it is 0.3% today: see the Clarksons Research Energy Transition Model for more details).
Renewables Intelligence Network (RIN) – is a powerful new offering from Clarksons Research covering both macro and granular data, intelligence and forecasts around: long term Energy Transition modelling; project tracking of offshore wind farms; detailed country briefs and forecasts; profiles of all developers involved in offshore renewables; the offshore “wind” fleet and the vessels, owners and yards involved; green technology across this fleet; dashboard analytics; dynamic mapping and deployment analysis; port analysis; tidal, hydrogen and carbon capture.
Information Source: Read More
Oil and gas, press , | Energy, Climate, Renewable, Wind, Biomass, Sustainability, Oil Price, LPG, Solar, Electric,
