With no floating offshore wind projects in the pipeline between 2021 and 2025, there is a window of opportunity for early movers willing to unlock new expanses of offshore wind energy, according to WindEurope CEO Giles Dickson.
Dickson urged the EU Member States to seize this opportunity that floating offshore wind presents today, emphasizing that they should include the technology in their national energy climate action plan and run floating-specific auctions.
The WindEurope CEO, who spoke at the FOWT conference held in Marseille on 25 and 26 April, believes the integration of floating offshore wind will be a great boost to the wider wind industry, since Europe’s leadership in offshore wind energy, and in facilitating the energy transition, can only be maintained by expanding the renewable energy focus to include the floating technology.
According to WindEurope, floating offshore wind is complementary to bottom-fixed offshore wind and holds the key to an inexhaustible resource potential in Europe because 80% of all offshore wind resources are located in waters 60m and deeper in European seas.
These untapped resources could play a key role in helping the EU meet its 2030 climate goals, and help bridge the potential gap opened up by a projected flat-lining of fixed-bottom offshore wind deployment in the second half of the 2020s.
In order to maintain cost reduction trends, generate activity throughout the broader supply chain, and ensure Europe’s position in the wind technology worldwide, Dickson said the EU needs to install 6GW of offshore wind capacity per year between 2021 and 2030.
Europe is currently home to only one operating floating offshore wind farm – the 30MW Hywind Scotland , which started delivering electricity to the grid in October 2017.