Offshore Wind Farms Poised For Rapid Growth

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Thursday September 23, 2021

Offshore wind parks, also called wind farms, are set for rapid expansion over the next five years.

The number of offshore wind parks projected to be built is 450 with a total production capacity of 105 gigawatts, a capacity three times the current power output from offshore wind. Currently, there are 180 parks built over the last 15 to 20 years.

The average output from a wind turbine is 6.5 megawatts (mw), up from 4.5 mw four years ago.

Speaking at Wartsila's webinar on the offshore sector, Wartsila's Arthur Boogaard called the growth in the sector "enormous".

Demand for offshore vessels will increase both in number and in size.

"We will see more demand for bigger vessels, bigger cranes, and more insulation vessels," he said.

Boogaard said that the industry is ready to meet this demand. There is a caveat: insulation vessels are expensive and take longer to build. But for the smaller, support vessels, he didn't see a problem in meeting demand.

Alexis Lintot, of Aker Offshore Wind, said that as new wind farms are more likely to be positioned further away from the coastline than is currently the case, there could be a gap [between supply and demand] at the top end.  But as more projects are announced, investment would increase, he said.

Ship & Bunker News Team
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