The global offshore wind operations and maintenance (O&M) market is expected to grow 16% annually to reach $12bn (€10bn) by 2029, according to new data from Wood Mackenzie.
Europe will remain the biggest O&M market by region, reaching $6.6bn by 2029.
China is expected to overtake UK’s position as world’s largest single offshore wind O&M market, with 41GW of growth throughout the 2020s, leading to a total of 49GW capacity.
This is equivalent to $2bn of operational expenditure opportunities by 2029.
Coupled with the expiration of national subsidies for wind power, offshore operators in China will face “considerable operational challenges” to ensure the profitability of their projects, said Wood Mackenzie.
The global offshore wind O&M market is still young and lacks experience in long-term O&M issues and failures, Wood Mackenzie stated.
Today 1.8GW of global capacity have been operating for over 10 years.
By 2029, this figure will increase 11 times to 20GW.
By then, 90% of the operational fleet, equivalent to 165GW, will still be under 10 years old.
Wood Mackenzie senior analyst Shimeng Yang said: “We expect to see O&M strategies developed for highly subsidised projects featuring near shore and smaller turbines evolving to fit the new market landscape characterised by large turbines and waning subsidies.
“As the overall O&M market grows, these changes will open new opportunities for both existing and new players in the offshore wind sector.”
As manufacturers dedicate more resources to O&M services for newer and larger turbine models, the ageing turbine fleet represents a “significant opportunity” for independent service providers as well as in-house expertise, said Wood Mackenzie.
Wood Mackenzie research associate Finlay Clark said: “Design and fabrication innovations that accommodate the rapid increase in turbine capacity must be met with equally innovative O&M practices, as turbine complexity and project scale continue to soar.”
With economies of scale and improved efficiency of asset management and O&M services, global average OpEx per megawatt is expected to decline 20% between 2020 and 2029 on average.
Europe’s implementation of flexible service operation vessels, remote operation innovations (such as drones), cameras, new digital technologies and the impact of offshore wind clustering have resulted in average OpEx per megawatt declining for by 44% over the last eight years.