More than 200 GW of new offshore wind projects have been announced since the beginning of 2020 - accounting for more than 44% of all global capacity at the pre-construction or early development phase, according to the 2020 Global Offshore Wind Annual Market Report issued from The Renewables Consulting Group (RCG).
Despite a global pandemic, 2020 was a year of substantial milestones for global offshore wind. With new projects announced from Colombia to Brazil in the Americas, Spain to Estonia in Europe and Australia to the Philippines in the APAC region, the technology has been adopted by markets at contrasting levels of socio-economic development and distinct geographies. New projects exceeding 500MW in capacity were announced in Spain, Ireland, Norway, Taiwan, South Korea, Italy, Brazil and Vietnam through to early 2021. Technology continues to emerge as floating offshore wind continues to emerge as a utility-scale option for markets with deep-water seabed areas.
While offshore wind enjoyed a transformative year for market growth, new policies, and targets, fostering development at a government level and ongoing installation across all regions, there remain significant challenges to the industry in meeting ambitious targets and enabling the realisation of projects in the pipeline beyond 2030.
Supply chain constraints across all regions, as well as undefined development frameworks and route to market mechanisms, will limit deployment of capacity across the sector through to 2030. The rate of deployment in the near-term should not be underestimated, however the ambition of government authorities and investors may exceed sector capability in some areas.
The data and the analysis compiled for this report were compiled from RCG’s GRIP 2.0 online database.