Annual spending on the offshore wind is expected to more than treble to more than £10billion by 2016, delegates at All-Energy are to be told today.
Germany, the UK and China are forecast to be the largest markets for offshore wind over the next five years, Frank Wright, manager at the Aberdeen base of analyst Douglas-Westwood, will tell a session on offshore wind.
The three markets will account for 12 gigawatts (GW), or 83% of new global capacity.
Demand for wind turbines will increase from 370 per year in 2010 to 975 turbines a year in 2016, he will say, seeing new annual capacity average about 3GW towards the end of the next five years in comparison with the average of less than 600 megawatts (MW) from 2007-11.
Speaking ahead of the event, he said the average offshore windfarm project over the next two years would have a capacity of more than 200MW, be in water deeper than 65 feet and be more than 15 miles from shore.
Components for turbines are increasing in size, creating challenges for installation contractors and port owners as they try to “future-proof” vessels and port facilities.
Mr Wright said: “Looking further into the future, UK round-three projects will drive growth in the market. These projects are so large they will need to be built in several construction phases and being farther from shore will require HVDC (high-voltage direct current) links to minimise transmission losses.”
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