Westwood: Current Leasing Rounds Hold 135 GW of New Offshore Wind Capacity

The offshore wind sector is witnessing accelerated growth both in the size and number of new projects, as well as in new markets, with 135 GW of new capacity now available in leasing rounds around the world, according to new analysis from the energy market research firm Westwood Global Energy Group.

More than 20 GW of this new offshore wind capacity is in countries which have not previously held a licensing round, such as Canada, Colombia, and India, according to Westwood, which points out that the 135 GW of this new global capacity is equivalent to nearly 2.5 times today’s 55 GW.

Commenting on the results of the analysis, Peter Lloyd-Williams, Senior Analyst, Offshore Wind at Westwood, said: “This growth will present huge opportunities and challenges to the sector – both for the supply chain delivering existing projects and the developers exploring new opportunities. As the offshore wind industry tries to do it all to deliver the energy transition, understanding the full breadth of the market is more important than ever”.

According to data available on Westwood’s website, the company expects the global installed capacity to increase to 350 GW by 2030. In an update released earlier this year, Westwood also said it expected 15 GW of floating wind capacity to come online by that time.

The latest figures on the capacity currently available in leasing rounds are a result of new analysis related to upgrades to Westwood’s WindLogix solution, which also include greater coverage of offshore wind leases.

“It’s an incredibly exciting time for the offshore wind market, but equally, we’re faced with lots of unknowns. New markets, new developers, and new suppliers are all entering at pace which makes up-to-date market intelligence imperative to decision making. Recognising this need, we’ve scaled in-step to provide both existing and new customers with the reliable and wide-ranging market intelligence insights they need to identify and compare opportunities and get up to speed quickly, with all commercial and supply chain data in one place”, said David Linden, Head of Energy Transition at Westwood.