According to 4C Offshore's latest Market
Overview report, during 2015 financial close was reached for ten
offshore wind projects across Europe amounting to over £11 billion (15
billion EUR) of investment.
The UK has seen the lion share of projects
reach financial close with five out of the ten projects across Europe being
constructed in UK waters through 2016 and into 2017. The UK will see over
2GW of additional capacity underway by the end of 2017.
The Hywind
project is the first offshore
wind farm which will feature the installation of five 6MW floating turbines
which measure at 258 metres. Each turbine will be attached to the seabed
by a 3 point mooring system. The deployment could mark an important step
forward for the floating industry and potentially open up deeper areas
of water thought inaccessible due to the lack of cost effective solutions.
As the technology is developing a number of projects are now becoming viable
including Statoil's
latest Hywind Park.
Accounting for 336MW, the Galloper
offshore wind farm, being
constructed next door to the existing Greater
Gabbard project, reached
financial close at the end of October. The developers announced on 19 Nov
that it will use the Port
of Lowestoft as a base
for the construction. The project will see the installation of 56 Siemens
6MW turbines.
The installation of five projects, accounting
for just under £7 billion in investment, will relieve the UK offshore industry
of the lull it has seen this previous year. With the installation of only
49.5MW in the form of the Kentish
Flats extension, the UK
has seen a reduction in offshore activity through 2015 compared to previous
years. On the other hand, 2014 was successful and saw the commissioning
of over 1GW.
Germany saw the financial close of three
projects, two of which are located in the German cluster of the Economic
Exclusive Zone. Veja
Mate, Nordergründe
and Nordsee
One account for 844MW
of offshore wind commitments in 2015 and represent £2.4 billion worth of
investment.
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Figure 1. shows a breakdown of the ownership
type for offshore wind farms which reached financial close in 2015. Utilities,
or power producers, are the main investors in today’s offshore wind industry
utilising their large balance sheets to progress with planned projects.
Utilities currently own approximately 70% of all commissioned and under
construction wind parks in Europe, dominating each individual market and
holding the rights to most projects in the planning pipeline, although
it is becoming more common for non-utilities to become active as the scale
of investment grows.
Institutional investors are becoming
more commonplace too, absorbing construction risk and enhancing the financial
landscape for offshore wind by offering injection of capital.
More information about the offshore wind
farm market can be obtained from our Offshore
Wind Overview Report.
The report is part of our Offshore
Wind Farm Subscription
and gives a contextual insight into market development and supply chains.
With over 40 pages the report replaces hours of calculation time with instant
results. Furthermore, the offshore wind farm subscription also provides
subscribers with the Offshore
update which enables
them to stay informed and keep up with the latest offshore wind farm news
in the form of a weekly newsletter. With access to the Offshore
Wind Farm Database
, which has comprehensive information about 1400+ projects worldwide, the
subscription is a must have for those within the offshore wind sector.
