Blue H - Market
Wind energy has emerged as a centrepiece of the new energy economy; it is abundant, inexhaustible, widely distributed, clean, climate-friendly and can revitalize rural and coastal communities. The market for wind has already grown dramatically: in 1986 only a few hundred MW were installed worldwide; by 1996 worldwide installed capacity was about 7,000 MW; and, by year end 2010, this figure had grown to over 194,000 MW which represented a 22.5% increase according to the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC). The new capacity that was added in 2010 represents investments worth € 47.3 billion.
At the end of 2010, approximately 98.5% of the wind energy market was onshore with the remaining balance, approximately 3,000 MW, attributable to offshore wind farms located in shallow waters, mostly in north-west Europe. According to the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA), in 2010 annual installed offshore wind capacity was 883 MW, representing a growth rate of 51% compared to the 577 MW installed during 2009. For 2011, the EWEA expects the completion of additional European offshore wind farms, adding up to 1,500 MW. In 2010, the turnover of the offshore wind industry was approximately € 2.6 billion, a 170% increase over 2009. Europe’s cumulative offshore wind capacity is expected to increase in line with the demand to meet national and EU renewable energy targets.
Currently, 10 offshore wind farms are under construction in Europe, totalling more than 3,000 MW. After completion, Europe’s installed offshore capacity will increase to about 6,000 MW. At the moment, there are about 19,000 MW worth of consented offshore wind farms.
The United States, with no offshore wind farms yet built, offers a huge potential for offshore wind. At least 900,000 MW of latent wind energy (which happens to be the size of the entire US grid according to the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (“NREL.”) can be utilised. Some experts predict that the offshore potential may even be significantly higher than 900,000 MW and the prognosis for the industry’s development in the US is now very encouraging. For example, the advisory and market research firm Douglas-Westwood confirms that “the US has made great progress through the Obama administration to establishing the necessary mechanisms to allow offshore wind projects to be developed.”
China offers another great potential for offshore wind, especially after the fact that in 2010, it surpassed the US in terms of installed wind capacity which stands at 42.3 GW. In 2010 China’s new installations were 16.5 GW.
Offshore wind farms benefit from stronger and less turbulent wind and can avoid logistic constraints due to problems of land transportation of large turbines and their blades, as well as address to a large degree the concerns of negative visual impact of onshore wind farms. However, with the commercially available technology today, which requires wind turbine foundations to be installed into the seabed on mono-piles, jackets or tripods, the cost of installation increases dramatically as the depth of water increases, effectively limiting potential offshore sites to areas typically less than 30 meters in depth, a constraint which restricts greatly the potential available areas financially and technically suitable for the construction of wind farms. Yet, wind farms will indeed need to be built using wind turbines on floating foundations in waters far deeper than 30 meters. As an example, NREL estimates that 90% of the US offshore wind resource is in waters of 30 meters or more.
