Wind Energy
Wind power technologies have been rapidly maturing and playing an important role in renewable energy systems. Modern design of wind turbines has increased the power, improved the performance and reduced the overall cost of wind energy. New technologies such as offshore turbines with record-level rated capacities up to 12 MW and modern commercial floating wind farm are examples of recent investments.
The usage of wind energy is on the rise worldwide, with an increase on its onshore and offshore wind generation capacity by a factor of almost 75 in the past two decades, jumping from 7.5 GW in 1997 to 564 GW by 2018 [1]. Nowadays, it is one of the fastest-growing renewable energy technologies.
The growth of global offshore wind market was nearly 30% per year between 2010 and 2018, benefitting from rapid technology improvements. However, it is still far from its full potential, representing only 0.3% of global power generation. Considering the high-quality resources available in most major markets, offshore wind has the potential to generate more than 420,000 TWh per year worldwide, which represents more than 18 times the current global electricity demand [2].
Despite the increasing complexity of projects located in the offshore deep waters, the cost of electricity from wind power continues to fall. The most relevant facts that contribute to the cost reduction are the growing maturity of the industry and the competitiveness of the market, evident by the establishment of mature supply chains and improvements in the wind turbine technology.
The global offshore wind market is set to expand significantly over the next two decades, growing by 13% per year according to current policies, increasing its capacity by fifteen-fold up to 2040, and becoming a $1 trillion industry. At this level of investment, offshore wind will account for 10% of investment in renewables-based power plants globally [2].
References:
[1] Renewable Capacity Statistics 2019, IRENA
[2] Offshore Wind Outlook 2019, IEA