The world could have 70 GW of installed floating wind capacity in 2040 with up to 10.7 GW running by the end of this decade, according to new market projections made by the Carbon Trust.
These estimates come from the Phase II summary report of the Floating Wind Joint Industry Project (JIP) that was released on Tuesday. According to the Carbon Trust, the project value of 70 GW of floating wind capacity currently amounts to GBP 195 billion (USD 246.2bn/EUR 215bn). To date, there are only 73 MW of floating wind turbines installed and this is expected to increase to 124 MW by the end of the year. The largest system already installed is the 30-MW Hywind Scotland park off Aberdeenshire.
The Floating Wind JIP is a collaborative research and development initiative formed in 2016 between the Carbon Trust, the government of Scotland and 15 international offshore wind developers. So far, projects have been concluded as part of Phase I and II of the initiative. The first phase focused on electrical and mooring systems, and on logistics for the construction and operation of floating wind farms.
Phase II work covered four main themes: turbine requirements and foundations scaling, heavy lift offshore operations, dynamic export cables and monitoring and inspection. Each section was informed by studies delivered by a different expert, namely Ramboll, Seaway 7, BPP Cable Solutions and Oceaneering.
Ramboll’s study shows that only minor modifications would be required to accommodate larger turbines, aside from work on towers and controllers. Also, the required relative primary steel, secondary steel and mooring mass decreases for larger turbines.
Seaway 7 carried out a study, which showed that the industry is in need of vessels capable of undertaking the required heavy lift operations or alternative lifting solutions like climbing crane technology. Presently, the availability of suitable floating heavy lift vessels is limited and there is a high cost associated with their utilisation.
BPP Cable Solutions has implemented a project to assess the challenges of developing high voltage dynamic power cables for export purposes in floating wind farms and launched a competition for cable makers to develop suitable designs and conduct tests. Five sector players were selected for this.
Last but not least, Oceaneering carried out a study to find out there is a need for improvement in both the collection of data and its usage to inform and manage asset integrity for floating wind farms.
Further projects will be delivered this year as part of Phase III and IV.
Scotland’s energy minister, Paul Wheelhouse, said that the government is ready to support the work needed to address challenges in the floating wind segment.
“The findings of this report from Phase II of the project are very much welcomed. It is particularly encouraging to see the significant growth projected for the floating offshore wind industry in the coming decades and we are keen to explore early opportunities associated with the ScotWind leasing round of Crown Estate Scotland, the electrification of production platforms in the oil and gas sector and for production of ‘green hydrogen’ for use in transport, heating and industry,” he stated.
(GBP 1.0 = USD 1.263/EUR 1.104)
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Hywind Scotland. Source: Masdar
