The 20th édition of the WMU Report shows how much this market
has grown. By the end of 2014, wind power output at sea totalled
7,697 MW. At that time, there were almost a dozen further offshore wind farms under construction of roughly the same size
coming to around 7,000 MW. And in the process, the exploitation of offshore wind power in the preceding years had long since
moved beyond Europe alone. Planning had already begun in 2011
for the first projects in China, Japan and South Korea. Navigant
Research [the American company took over BTM in 2011] is forecasting an accelerating pace of expansion at sea for the five-year
period from 2015 to 2019. In 2019 alone, according to the outlook, 15 percent of newly installed wind power output around the
world would be accounted for by offshore wind projects on the
high seas.
If Navigant Research's outlook is not completely wide of the mark,
there could be almost 34,000 mégawatts of installed offshore
wind capacity by 2019. That would be 6,800 times the output of
the first small offshore wind project of Vindeby.
The figures produced by Navigant Research do not seem unrealistic. In the middle of 2014, Andrew Garrad, the then President of
the European Wind Energy Association [EWEA] presented a study
in which EWEA expects to see an installed wind power capacity of
nearly 24,000 MW by the end of 2020 in Europe alone - a figure
so far confirmed by the trend. The major markets would include
Great Britain with 9,500 MW [market share: 41 percent], Germany with 6,500 MW [market share: 28 percent] and Denmark with
2,800 MW [market share: 12 percent], Garrad, an authority on the
wind sector since the early 1980s, also expected a fast pace of
expansion at sea for the coming years. An average of 3,000 MW
of new offshore capacity will hâve to be built in the North Sea and
Baltic, off the French coast and in the Mediterranean in the next
few years if the target of 24,000 MW by the end of this decade is
to be met. By comparison with today, the pace of expansion will
hâve to roughly double. In 2013 the figure for new construction at
sea was 1,567 MW according to the EWEA analysis.
If these 24,000 mégawatts of offshore wind capacity really are
in operation, discussion of a super grid for ail these projects will
be back on the agenda by then at the latest. There was already
a group of progressive thinkers in the previous decade who - to
put it in a simplified way - wanted to construct a multinational
electricity grid linking ail the European offshore wind farms. This
would enable the green electricity from the sea to be transported
always to those points where there was a corresponding need. As
sensible as this super grid project seems for the System intégration of renewable energies, it has been put on ice at an EU level
in Brussels. Nobody wanted to shoulder an investment costing
billions. The super grid remains a pipe dream.
HSH Nordbank, one of the better known finance institutions for wind power projects, came to the conclusion that the
utilisation of offshore wind power is still gaining pace in its "Wind
Power Industry Study" presented in September 2014. The report
States: "Shifts can also be observed in the established wind markets. Whereas initially locations close to the coast were preferred
for the installation of wind turbines due to attractive wind conditions, increasingly turbines are now being erected in locations
with weak winds as well as offshore wind parks. One reason for
this development in both cases is that onshore locations close to
the coast are harder and harder to find. The higher consistency of
energy yields is one factor favouring offshore wind power.
Almost 25 years since the start of Vindeby, both politics and the
wind industry now exhibit a much greater degree of pragmatism.
Exaggerated expectations of the expansion of wind power at sea
from those early days hâve long since been revised downwards
although there has been no change to the central thesis behind
these forecasts: offshore wind power will become the second pillar of wind power utilisation worldwide, along with wind power on
land.
182
has grown. By the end of 2014, wind power output at sea totalled
7,697 MW. At that time, there were almost a dozen further offshore wind farms under construction of roughly the same size
coming to around 7,000 MW. And in the process, the exploitation of offshore wind power in the preceding years had long since
moved beyond Europe alone. Planning had already begun in 2011
for the first projects in China, Japan and South Korea. Navigant
Research [the American company took over BTM in 2011] is forecasting an accelerating pace of expansion at sea for the five-year
period from 2015 to 2019. In 2019 alone, according to the outlook, 15 percent of newly installed wind power output around the
world would be accounted for by offshore wind projects on the
high seas.
If Navigant Research's outlook is not completely wide of the mark,
there could be almost 34,000 mégawatts of installed offshore
wind capacity by 2019. That would be 6,800 times the output of
the first small offshore wind project of Vindeby.
The figures produced by Navigant Research do not seem unrealistic. In the middle of 2014, Andrew Garrad, the then President of
the European Wind Energy Association [EWEA] presented a study
in which EWEA expects to see an installed wind power capacity of
nearly 24,000 MW by the end of 2020 in Europe alone - a figure
so far confirmed by the trend. The major markets would include
Great Britain with 9,500 MW [market share: 41 percent], Germany with 6,500 MW [market share: 28 percent] and Denmark with
2,800 MW [market share: 12 percent], Garrad, an authority on the
wind sector since the early 1980s, also expected a fast pace of
expansion at sea for the coming years. An average of 3,000 MW
of new offshore capacity will hâve to be built in the North Sea and
Baltic, off the French coast and in the Mediterranean in the next
few years if the target of 24,000 MW by the end of this decade is
to be met. By comparison with today, the pace of expansion will
hâve to roughly double. In 2013 the figure for new construction at
sea was 1,567 MW according to the EWEA analysis.
If these 24,000 mégawatts of offshore wind capacity really are
in operation, discussion of a super grid for ail these projects will
be back on the agenda by then at the latest. There was already
a group of progressive thinkers in the previous decade who - to
put it in a simplified way - wanted to construct a multinational
electricity grid linking ail the European offshore wind farms. This
would enable the green electricity from the sea to be transported
always to those points where there was a corresponding need. As
sensible as this super grid project seems for the System intégration of renewable energies, it has been put on ice at an EU level
in Brussels. Nobody wanted to shoulder an investment costing
billions. The super grid remains a pipe dream.
HSH Nordbank, one of the better known finance institutions for wind power projects, came to the conclusion that the
utilisation of offshore wind power is still gaining pace in its "Wind
Power Industry Study" presented in September 2014. The report
States: "Shifts can also be observed in the established wind markets. Whereas initially locations close to the coast were preferred
for the installation of wind turbines due to attractive wind conditions, increasingly turbines are now being erected in locations
with weak winds as well as offshore wind parks. One reason for
this development in both cases is that onshore locations close to
the coast are harder and harder to find. The higher consistency of
energy yields is one factor favouring offshore wind power.
Almost 25 years since the start of Vindeby, both politics and the
wind industry now exhibit a much greater degree of pragmatism.
Exaggerated expectations of the expansion of wind power at sea
from those early days hâve long since been revised downwards
although there has been no change to the central thesis behind
these forecasts: offshore wind power will become the second pillar of wind power utilisation worldwide, along with wind power on
land.
182