World to add 15 GW of offshore wind capacity in 2012-2016

Nov 21, 2011 - Fifteen gigawatts of new offshore wind capacity are to be added worldwide over the coming five years, UK-based energy consultancy Douglas-Westwood has forecast.

This represents an average 3 GW a year, compared with 600 MW annually for the five years to 2011.

According to Douglas-Westwood's report, out on Friday, more than EUR 51 billion (USD 68.9bn) is likely to be invested in new offshore wind capacity between 2012 and 2016.

"With more than 3 GW of offshore wind now installed globally and more than 2 GW currently under construction, offshore wind is becoming a mainstream power generation sector," Frank Wright, author of the report said.

Ian Jones, co-author, noted that Britain, Germany and China would be the biggest individual markets and would together account for more than 80% of new capacity worldwide.

Wright said that a risk-sharing approach to offshore wind farms developments was likely to be adopted in the future due to the growing financial requirements as projects became bigger.

While noting that competition among suppliers was increasing, Wright said Vestas and Siemens were expected to remain the dominant market players.

(EUR 1.0 = USD 1.351)

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