Introduction
Offshore wind power is one of the newest major sources of renewable electricity generation to be developed and also one of the most interesting. Its history is short, no more than 20 years, and yet over that period the technology has been able to establish itself as both viable and potentially profitable.
Features and benefits
- Realize up to date competitive intelligence through a comprehensive review of offshore wind power generation technologies concepts.
- Assess the emerging trends in offshore wind power generation technologies.
- Identify which key trends will offer the greatest growth potential and learn which technology trends are likely to allow greater market impact.
- Compare how manufacturers are developing offshore wind power generation technologies.
- Quantify costs of offshore wind power generation technologies, with comparisons against forms of power, installation costs, and cost of electricity.
Highlights
In Europe, by the middle of 2011, there were 1,247 offshore wind turbines across nine countries, 49 wind farms with an aggregate capacity of 3,294MW. Based on satellite data, offshore wind energy could provide up to 15% of global energy demand.
Today most wind farms are built in water depths or around 25m or less and few exceed 50m. Regions of highest wind energy can potentially provide between 500W/m2 and 800W/m2.
Overall unconstrained wind energy potential in Europe including both onshore and offshore was 70,000TWh, more than 20 times the expected energy demand in 2020. Of this, 25,000TWh was is offshore.
Your key questions answered
- What are the drivers shaping and influencing offshore wind power generation technology development in the electricity industry?
- What does offshore wind power generation cost? What will it cost in the future?
- Which offshore wind power generation technology types will be the winners and which the losers in terms power generated, cost and viability?
- Which offshore wind power generation technology types are likely to find favor with manufacturers moving forward?
- Which emerging technologies are gaining in popularity and why?