Roughly 90% of global offshore wind capacity comes from Europe, with the UK, Denmark, the Netherlands and Germany at the forefront.
Developments progressed slower in 2011 than in 2010 with only 788.1 MW of additional offshore wind capacity installed as opposed to 1139.9 MW in 2010, leading to a total capacity of 3820.1 MW.
The projects adding to this include the Walney I, Walney II, Ormonde and Sheringham Shoal Wind Farms all located in UK waters, the German projects Bard 1 and Baltic 1, and the Danish Avedore site and the Portuguese Windfloat floating turbine.
Preparations also began back in 2011 for the construction of 9 other wind farms, 7 of which are located off Germany and 2 off the UK coast.
It is well known that the North Sea and Baltics all provide excellent conditions for offshore wind projects, and Europe is far advanced in providing government incentives to the industry.
However, with the lack of grid access and projects moving further from shore and into deeper water the offshore wind market here presents large liabilities for developers but a potentially lucrative market for contractors.
After interviewing over 100 offshore wind experts working in the North Sea and surrounding oceans, Wind Energy Update has collated the results to give the industry the latest market data.
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Offshore WIND Staff, July 20, 2012; Image: Vattenfall