New markets

Despite the challenges and evolving risk landscape the future of the industry is clear: growth. Both floating and fixed offshore wind are expected to see rapid growth in the near future: the fixed market is expanding into new territories and, in the floating market, the ability to harness the power of the wind at depths of more than 60 metres will open up even more markets for expansion. According to the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) 80% of the world’s offshore wind resource potential2 is in waters that are below this depth, which allows for considerable projects in Ireland, Japan, Australia, Italy, Morocco, The Philippines, India and Brazil. GWEC estimates 130GW of offshore wind will be added by 2027,2 which, if correct, means the amount of wind added in the next four years will be twice as much as we have currently installed. Meanwhile Norway is thought to have potential for 338GW on its own.3