Offshore wind is expected to account for 27% of total offshore (oil & gas and wind combined) capital expenditure (capex) by 2022, compared to just 4% in 2013, according to a new report by Westwood Global Energy Group.
According to the World Offshore Wind Market Forecast 2018-2027 report, the overall spend associated with offshore wind development over this period is expected to total EUR 464 billion.
Over 15,300 offshore wind turbines will be installed over the 2018-2027 period with a global cumulative capacity to reach just under 113GW by 2027, including projects at the concept and speculative stages of development, according to the report.
This growth will provide opportunities across the marine equipment and engineering sectors, the report states, emphasizing that in the recent years a number of oil & gas companies diversified into the offshore wind sector providing a variety of services, such as heavy-lift, cable manufacture and installation/burial, fixed platform structures and site survey and geotechnical data analysis.
Westwood forecasted that the UK, China, and Germany will continue dominating the market over the next decade, accounting for 61% of capacity additions from projects past the concept stage of development over 2018-2027.
In addition, almost 37GW of additional capacity over 2018-2027 is likely to come from projects currently at the concept and speculative stages of development.
Given the increased focus on renewables, Westwood said the industry will continue attracting investment from utilities and large engineering and service contractors, as well as upstream oil & gas companies.