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Global Offshore Wind Goals Hit by Lack of Suitable Infrastructure

Rapid advances in offshore wind technology, making turbines bigger and more powerful, are currently outpacing the infrastructure capacity needed to install them, warns IHS Markit in its new report.

May 06, 2021. By Manu Tayal

Rapid advances in offshore wind technology, making turbines bigger and more powerful, are currently outpacing the infrastructure capacity needed to install them, warns IHS Markit in its new report.

According to the report, the offshore wind annual gross capacity additions are expected to grow six-fold by 2030 due to dramatic cost reductions, advances in technology, favorable policies and ever-increasing national targets.

However, the industry needs to rapidly develop and invest in new infrastructure to achieve these ambitious plans, the report says.

Most critically, the current offshore wind turbine installation vessel (WTIV) fleet is unable to install the new larger 15+ MW turbines that will be hitting the market in the next three years.

Explaining further, Andrei Utkin, principal analyst, Clean Energy Technology at IHS Markit, said “offshore wind turbines are constantly getting bigger and more powerful, reducing costs, improving competitiveness and opening new markets. However, that presents a new challenge. As new developments are moving further offshore and into deeper waters, logistics, transit and installation become more complex and require larger specialized self-propelled jackup vessels with technical capabilities far beyond the existing fleet.”

IHS Markit projected that the industry will need to invest a minimum of $1.2 to $2 billion to build at least 4 new vessels to meet global demand from 2026, outside of mainland China. Depending on where these vessels are built, the total cost may be significantly higher if local content requirements are taken into consideration, particularly in the emerging offshore wind markets of the United States and Asia Pacific.

“Although six new vessels currently under construction are expected to come online by 2023, absent further investment the global fleet would still experience difficulties to cover the global demand in 2026−27 and would most certainly fail to do so post-2028. As a result, at least four additional WTIVs are needed to cover the expected demand to 2030,” said Andrei Utkin, principal analyst, Clean Energy Technology at IHS Markit.

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