Offshore wind consultancy OWC has developed a market study that has identified 54 territories as potential floating wind markets.
Twenty-two countries, spanning Europe, the Americas and Asia Pacific, fall into the category for short-term development of floating offshore wind within the period of 2022-2035, whilst 32 fall into the long-term category from 2035 to 2050, including countries in Africa.
OWC, which is doing the study for ORE Catapult’s Floating Offshore Wind Centre of Excellence, analysed over 240 territories for their potential readiness for floating wind development.
Each territory was assessed against minimum technical thresholds such as coastal access, offshore wind resources and bathymetry, and by additional socio-economic filters to support investments in commercial scale floating offshore wind.
Against this criterion, the report narrowed the list of potential floating wind markets to 54 territories, which pass all thresholds.
Then all 54 territories were further evaluated in terms of their short-term or long-term readiness for commercial floating offshore wind development based on 11 custom developed criteria spanning three categories.
These were technical resource and policy drivers, commercial investment landscape and floating offshore wind market facilitators.
“Floating offshore wind will be critical to offshore wind’s role in the future energy mix, but it also brings its own challenges and opportunities, which means that all offshore wind markets are not ready or suitable for future development.
“This study provides a critical blueprint of that global expansion, identifying the markets to watch in terms of short-term or long-term readiness as a major floating wind player,” said Craig Brown (right), principal consultant at OWC.
ORE Catapult floating wind head Ralph Torr (left) added: “This study provides an insight into the where, when and how floating offshore wind can develop to become a global industry, and hence plays a critical role in delivering a global net zero.
“The study pinpoints the leading markets to deliver on a possible 10GW by 2030, and identifies how these markets can pave the way for widespread deployment across the globe in the later 2030s and 2040s.”
A summary of the study will also be shown at the ABL Group stand 75 at Global Offshore Wind 2022, on the 21 June at 16:00.