IRENA's 2024 Floating Offshore Wind Outlook: New Focus on Energy Transition
Report on '2024 Floating Offshore Wind Power Outlook' Released
IRENA International Renewable Energy Agency
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The international community's goal is to quickly decarbonize industries that are difficult to reduce emissions and limit the global average temperature rise to within 1.5 degrees Celsius (°C) above pre industrial levels. At the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates in 2023, a historic commitment was made to triple renewable energy capacity and double energy efficiency by 2030. In 2023, renewable energy accounted for 87% of new electricity capacity and 43% of global installed capacity, setting an annual record. Due to its high capacity and increasing competitiveness, offshore wind power has become the focus of energy transformation plans. Despite some progress in offshore wind power - with a global installed capacity of 63 gigawatts (GW) by 2022- achieving the 1.5 ° C target requires 494GW of capacity by 2030 and 2465GW by 2050. Floating offshore wind power, a subfield of offshore wind power, is receiving special attention from stakeholders.
This attention is related to the enormous potential of wind energy available on the high seas and the higher social acceptance of floating offshore wind power, which is mostly located far from the coast and seen by energy players as a "real estate" with high demand. The global floating wind power industry is still in its early stages, with approximately 270 megawatts of operational capacity as of 2023. However, the global reserve of new floating wind power projects is 244 GW, indicating a great interest in this technology.
From a market and geopolitical perspective, G7 countries are increasing their efforts to enhance their floating offshore wind power capacity - with the UK, France, US, and Japan being the most active countries in this field. The main challenges associated with this technology are its limited operational scale and higher capital and operating expenditure requirements (CAPEX/OPEX) compared to fixed offshore wind power. However, it is expected that with the improvement of economies of scale, floating offshore wind power will become competitive and commercially feasible by 2035.
Politically speaking, international cooperation must be accelerated, and decision-makers need to enhance their familiarity with floating offshore wind power technology to increase its visibility. From a regulatory perspective, it is urgent to establish a favorable framework to create an ecosystem suitable for the development of floating offshore wind power. Technically speaking, floating offshore wind power is a highly innovative field, with multiple component concepts being explored and having varying levels of technological maturity - an observation consistent with trend insights obtained from offshore wind power patent data. Foundations (such as buoys, barges, semi submersible platforms, tension leg platforms), mooring systems, and grid infrastructure (using high-voltage direct current (HVDC) cables) are constantly evolving elements, and many offshore wind developers are active in this field. With the continuous growth of the industry, it is necessary to increase investment to achieve larger scale projects. In addition, in order to achieve technological integration and promote stable growth of the industry, increasing standardization and certification is also an implicit requirement.
The growth of investment in port infrastructure, synchronized with appropriate offshore onshore power grid planning, will be the key to consolidating the position of floating offshore wind power in the energy transition. If we want to achieve high power generation capacity of floating offshore wind power, it can be combined with other sector activities such as hydrogen production. Different institutions/consortia are experimenting with multiple projects that are particularly relevant, especially when they are close to hydrogen demand centers. The areas that need further research include how to safely produce hydrogen at sea and the optimal parameters for transporting it to land.
As the energy transition accelerates, ensuring its sustainability will be crucial. Due to the fact that floating offshore wind power projects are essentially located in deeper waters far from the coast, their impact on the environment and biodiversity is much lower than that of fixed offshore wind power. However, the floating offshore wind power industry is still in its early stages and requires detailed data collection and environmental impact assessments to validate this observation.
The ocean holds significant value for many maritime stakeholders, whose business prospects and economic livelihoods are closely related to and dependent on the marine environment. In the context of floating offshore wind power, especially the needs of the fisheries sector, must be considered in the project development process. Fishery activities are often located in similar locations to floating offshore wind power projects. The main risks of coexistence between the two include fish getting tangled in mooring lines or lost fishing gear obstructing the function of floating wind electronic structures. In order to promote symbiotic relationships, it is important to consult with stakeholders in the fisheries industry in the early stages of project development. Equally important is to use tools such as ocean spatial planning to identify areas that will not cause unexpected conflicts.