With wind energy capacity growing at a rapid pace, the value of the operations and maintenance (O&M) market is expected to increase from US$ 3 billion in 2008 to US$ 19 billion by 2020, says research and consulting firm GlobalData.
According to the company’s latest report , more than 187GW of wind power capacity was added between 2008 and 2012, which has drastically increased O&M expenditure from US$ 3 billion to US$ 7 billion in the same period, demonstrating a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 15.6%. Offshore wind energy will continue to attract higher O&M costs in comparison to onshore wind, reaching a market size of US$ 5 billion, or a 29% share of the total O&M market in 2020. Currently, the US is the largest O&M market in the world, but GlobalData expects that China will surpass it to become the leader in O&M expenditure, with a 24.7% share of the market by 2020. According to the report, the growth in the wind industry’s O&M cost is largely due to the increasing age of wind turbines and the failure of components such as blades and gearboxes.