Monday 24 June 2013

Offshore wind spending could average ‘€15bn a year’

The global wind industry is forecast to spend almost €15 billion (£12.8bn) every year for the next ten years to develop the offshore sector.

Analysts at British firm Douglas-Westwood expect offshore wind installations to average at 3.2GW every year over the next decade, with capital expenditure hitting a peak of €18 billion (£15.4bn) in 2016.

They suggest some of the factors driving offshore wind installation include low carbon targets, rising energy demand and the need to replace power generation capacity.

Dmitry Dovgan, the report's author said: “For many countries, including the UK and Germany, offshore wind is a key component in the future electricity generation mix. To date, the UK market has been the main driver of growth, with many important lessons learned along the way. At the current time, we see increasing activity in Germany with a large amount of new capacity set to come online in the near future.”

New global installations are expected to average just over 3,000MW per year during the same period, according to the analysts. They, however, suggest high cost levels in the industry could constraint development.

The news follows a recent report that ranked the UK in sixth place for renewable investment in addition to leading the offshore wind industry in Europe last year.