09.2024

What is offshore wind? 

‘Offshore wind’ refers to wind turbines that are installed in the sea, rather than on land. The wind turns the turbines to generate electricity. As wind is an infinite resource and this process creates energy without fossil fuels, this is a form of renewable energy.

Offshore wind has been part of the world’s energy mix since 1991, when the first offshore wind farm, Vindeby, was built in Denmark with 11 450kW turbines.

Countries across the world are now generating offshore wind at scale. With 10.8 GW of new offshore wind commissioned in 2023, global offshore wind capacity totals over 75 GW, according to the Global Wind Energy Council

What are the benefits of offshore wind?

Wind energy is a renewable energy source, providing an alternative to fossil fuels that do not emit greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. By producing energy this way, we can generate the electricity necessary for everyday life without the detrimental environmental impacts of fossil fuels like coal.

Offshore is present to stronger and more consistent wind, meaning that turbines can produce large quantities of energy more efficiently. Offshore sites also benefit from more space than onshore, which are limited by landmass and other restrictions such as proximity to human and animal habitats. The development of offshore wind projects also benefits national and local economies through investment and job creation, both directly and through the supply chain. [KCNC1] 

What are the challenges of offshore wind

Offshore wind farms can be difficult and expensive to build and maintain, although costs and complexity are decreasing with experience.

Sites need to be built while taking into account site-specific metocean conditions, which includes the weather conditions, tidal patterns, natural environments and the specifics of the ocean floor. As they are offshore, engineers and other workers must be transported to the site, which is often time intensive and costly. It is hard to build offshore wind farms beyond a certain depth – usually around 200ft – so offshore wind is not a viable solution for some areas of the world where the seabed is especially deep.

Offshore wind farms need to be developed with careful consultation of the natural environment to ensure minimal impact on ocean life, and with local communities whose view along the coastline may change.

What are the environmental impacts of offshore wind?

Impacts on the environment can vary by site, but typically there is minimal environmental damage caused by offshore wind farms. Often they can have positive effects on local wildlife, restricting access to the area so the marine life is less disturbed. It’s also been observed that some wind turbines can increase local fish populations by acting as artificial reefs, and increasingly sites are being built to have a positive impact on the marine environment, rather than a neutral one.

What is floating wind?

Floating wind farms are when the turbines are attached to a platform floating above the seabed. This means that places where the seabed depth is too great for fixed-bottom turbines to be installed could benefit from offshore wind. The floating platforms are still attached to the seabed, but the turbines are installed on top of the platforms.

Floating wind is a less mature technology than fixed-bottom offshore wind, but by 2050 the contribution of floating offshore wind is expected to represent 6% of the offshore wind share, with a total installed capacity of about 300 GW, according to DNV. Once the technology is scaled, the installation of floating wind turbines would be cheaper and potentially more efficient than fixed offshore wind turbines.


 [KCNC1]Figures on this globally are difficult to pin down and are often estimates, rather than more specific market-by-market figures.