A survey conducted by Westwood Global Energy Group (Westwood) highlights a lack of standardisation in floating technology (55%), manufacturing capability and capacity (51%), and port infrastructure (50%) as the most commonly cited major hurdles and risks to the progress of floating offshore wind.
The research, conducted in collaboration with Norwegian Offshore Wind and the World Forum Offshore Wind (WFO), gathered insights from 184 stakeholders in the floating offshore wind industry across the value chain. Echoing these challenges, there are increasing calls for governments to provide more targeted policy and regulatory support for technology development, alongside investments in cost reduction and port infrastructure to expedite adoption.
Opinions vary regarding optimism compared to two years ago, when ambitious targets were set for industry development. While 42% of European respondents express less optimism about the floating offshore wind sector than they did two years ago, the figure stands at 30% for non-European respondents. Globally, 44% of developers report being more optimistic about the sector compared to two years ago, contrasting with just under a quarter of supply chain respondents, indicating a potential delay in projects seeking their services.
Additional analysis from Westwood suggests that recent market disruptions, primarily driven by cost inflation, and subsequent shifts in developer strategies, will lead to missed global floating offshore targets. A majority of respondents (54%) anticipate less than 3GW of global capacity being operational by 2030, with Europe projected to achieve 0.5 – 2GW within the same timeframe according to 61% of respondents.
