Monday 1 October 2018

Investing €1bn in port facilities ‘could cut offshore wind costs by 5%’

Investing up to €1 billion (£890m) in port facilities could help cut offshore wind costs by 5.3%.

That's according to figures released by WindEurope, which show by 2030, Europe is expected to have installed 70GW of offshore wind, equating to more than 10.000 turbines in the seas.

To achieve this, a build-out rate of 6GW per year will be required, 20% of which will involve repowering existing sites with more powerful equipment.

WindEurope says upgrading, redesigning and adapting existing facilities would enable ports to become more efficient and complete installations more quickly.

It also suggests some of these new facilities will be needed to decommission around 750MW of wind capacity and recycle more than 600 turbines each year, between now and 2030.

WindEurope CEO Giles Dickson said: "Ports are an essential part of the offshore wind supply chain.

"We’d be keen to see new public-private partnerships and the allocation of existing EU funds to make this happen."