The ability of offshore wind to significantly contribute to the renewable energy targets of 2020 in Europe is spurring governments to support and encourage the sector.

As the onshore market continues to grow in certain regions and move slowly towards saturation in others, offshore wind is expected to form a greater part of the pie from the meager 2% that it is now. Onshore wind will always occupy a major share of the wind energy market. However, Frost & Sullivan expects offshore wind to grow from an insignificant part of the pie to a more substantial contributor of electricity generated from wind by 2020. According to Frost & Sullivan estimates, installed capacity of offshore wind is expected to grow from 1,276 MW in 2008 to 18,769 MW by 2015.

100 Turbines off Kent in the North Shore

The UK government has been blamed for its renewable energy policies not having enough teeth to encourage companies to invest in the UK whether it be onshore or offshore or project development or manufacturing. However, with the increase in the number of Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROCs) from 1.5 ROCs/Wh to 2 ROCs/MWh outlined in the budget in April the UK government gave a huge boost to the offshore wind energy industry.

World's first large-scale floating wind turbine off Norway

The green light for the 1GW offshore wind farm in the UK, the world’s biggest wind farm project, is the beginning of new and important developments of projects in this market. Frost & Sullivan’s Industry Analyst Gouri Kumar believes that “after a string of bad news in the industry, this is a significant change that will provide a stimulus to investors in the UK as well as in the rest of Europe. And this is especially important in consideration of the current economic climate.”

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Large Wind Turbines: Design and Economics In the light of the extensive debate surrounding the economics of scale of wind turbines, this timely work examines the engineering implications of developing lightweight compliant designs. Through the development of a unique modeling approach, the authors quantify the weight and cost of a diverse range of design solutions, enabling systematic quantitative comparisons to be made for the first time.