Floating Offshore Wind Shot: Progress and Priorities (2024)

FAQs

What is the future of floating offshore wind? ›

SHARE: By 2050, we predict that floating offshore wind will generate 264 GW or 15% of all offshore wind energy.

But despite the potential, the mass roll-out of floating wind turbines faces technical challenges. These include a lack of standardisation in the emerging technologies around foundation design, as well as supply chain constraints, leading to a relatively high levelised cost of energy.

The Floating Offshore Wind Shot seeks to reduce the cost of floating offshore wind power by 70% by 2035, which will drive down energy costs for ratepayers, create thousands of jobs, and establish the United States as a leader in design, development, and manufacturing in a new industry.

Interest in floating offshore wind is growing rapidly. In 2020, GWEC's Offshore Wind Market Report forecast growth of floating offshore wind from 17MW in 2020 to 6.5GW by 2030. A year later, our 2021 report increased this 2030 forecast to 16.5GW.

Floating wind

Offshore wind will rise globally from 8% of total wind production in 2020 to 34% in 2050, totalling almost 2000 GW.

These piles require special boats for their installation, during which noise and suspended sediments are produced. For this reason, in floating wind projects, their use will be reduced to locations where conditions make the use of other alternatives impossible. Dead or gravity anchors.

Disadvantages of offshore wind power

Offshore wind farms require more complex infrastructure to support them and, as a result, are more expensive to construct. Higher wind speeds, strong seas and accessibility issues makes offshore wind farms more challenging to maintain.

Around 80% of the world's offshore wind resource potential is in waters deeper than 60 metres, where fixed-bottom wind turbines are not a viable option. Thus, floating wind turbines could shape the future of wind energy.

DOI set a goal to deploy 15 GW of floating offshore wind capacity by 2035—enough to power over five million American homes.

What is the technology readiness level of floating offshore wind? ›

The technology readiness level (TRL) related to semi- submersible and spar buoy substructures has entered a phase (>8) in which the technology is deemed appropriate for launch and operations. The barge and the tension leg platform (TLP) concepts are projected to reach this stage in the coming years.

The most common types are fixed-bottom platforms, which are attached to the seabed by piles or gravity bases, and floating platforms, which are anchored to the seabed by mooring lines or cables. Floating platforms can be deployed in deeper waters, where fixed-bottom platforms are not feasible or economical.

Offshore Wind Energy Strategic Initiatives

Reduce the cost of fixed-bottom offshore wind to $51/megawatt-hour (MWh) by 2030. Support the development of a robust domestic offshore wind supply chain to install and operate more than 30 GW of fixed-bottom offshore wind.

Regions with annual average 100-meter height wind speeds of greater than 7 meters/second are considered as technically viable (for the current performance characteristics of offshore wind turbines) Fixed offshore wind is suitable for water depths of less than 50m.

And it's likely that floating projects will continue to make up less than 5% of offshore wind power installations, even a decade from now. The winds of change are blowing for renewable energy around the world. Even with economic uncertainty ahead, offshore wind power will certainly be a technology to watch in 2024.

The world is expected to reach a cumulative capacity of floating offshore wind energy of almost 40 gigawatts in 2030. The renewable technology is forecast to grow rapidly in the next years, with the United Kingdom, Italy, and Sweden leading the market.

sunanya kapoor. The global offshore wind turbine market size was valued at USD 21,441.8 million in 2023 and is poised to grow at a significant CAGR of 8.3% during the forecast period 2024-30.