Developers are losing confidence in floating offshore wind, citing delivery delays, investment risks, and policy uncertainty as key concerns, new research from Westwood Global Energy Group (Westwood) revealed.
Westwood polled 166 stakeholders across the global floating offshore wind value chain, including engineers, product developers, government organisations, and the broader supply chain.
The results of the Floating Offshore Wind Survey indicate that while activity in 2024, including new leasing rounds and subsidy announcements, suggests positive momentum, delivery delays, investment risks, and sluggish policy implementation are prompting a more cautious stance across the industry.
Comparing the results to the 2024 survey, developers are now the least confident, with 63 per cent feeling less optimistic than last year. 72 per cent of respondents now anticipate less than 3 GW of global floating offshore wind to be operational by 2030.
“Progress is happening, but too slowly. The frustration across the sector stems from knowing that momentum exists – but the pace is out of sync with expectations,” said Bahzad Ayoub , Manager Offshore Wind at Westwood.
“Optimism hasn’t disappeared, but it’s now paired with a grounded mindset. Floating wind must be treated as a distinct sector, not simply an extension of fixed-bottom wind and a majority of respondents think this way. The technology, timelines and investment requirements are different – and government and industry action needs to reflect that.”
Some reasons for the lack of optimism include high upfront capital costs and limited investor confidence in new technology. In addition, a lack of standardisation, port infrastructure, and low government support levels continue to dominate the non-financial hurdles, according to Westwood.
The UK, France, and South Korea were identified as the top three countries in floating wind, aligning with the regions where subsidies and policy signals have been most pronounced, the research outlines.
Westwood ran the survey in association with World Forum Offshore Wind, Norwegian Offshore Wind, Oceantic Network, and WindEurope.
According to a report published by RenewableUK in October 2024, the global pipeline of floating offshore wind projects expanded from 244 GW to 266 GW.