The offshore wind rotorcraft fleet will grow from 27 to 126 by 2030, according to a new report from Air & Sea Analytics (ASA).
It forecast that the fleet will remain smaller than many other comparable areas such as oil & gas but will still represent a robust and growing opportunity to deploy modern light medium twin helicopters.
The report concluded that the Airbus H145 and Leonardo AW169 models are likely to dominate, along with the smaller Airbus H135.
In construction-support, ASA expects to see medium helicopters such as the AW139 and (in the fullness of time) the H160.
Larger ‘super medium’ aircraft such as the H175 have previously been used in support of offshore wind construction and may well be used in the future in this application.
Likewise, the largest offshore rotorcraft such as S-92 could be used in some construction support applications where helidecks allow.
The report is intended to provide the industry with a view of the current status and outlook for the offshore wind rotorcraft market.
The research identifies a substantial volume of offshore wind farm projects that we believe will be built between 2020 and 2030.
A total of 467 projects are forecast with 267GW total capacity which will bring overall installed offshore windfarm installed capacity to over 300GW by 2030.