Wind

Westwood trims predicted offshore wind rollout, citing project cancellations

Offshore wind sector was hit hard last year by supply chain issues, spiralling inflation and high interest rates

The 317MW Sheringham Shoal Offshore Wind Farm in the British North Sea
The 317MW Sheringham Shoal Offshore Wind Farm in the British North SeaFoto: Flickr/NHD-INFO
Journalist

Energy consultancy Westwood has revised down its forecast for the rollout of offshore wind, citing Orsted’s scrapping of two major US projects and other cancellations in a challenging year for the sector.

Westwood Global Energy Group now predicts global offshore wind capacity will reach 414GW by 2032, a 7.4% decrease in comparison to what it forecast early last year.

The Westwood outlook was published today (Tuesday) in a report by industry platform World Forum Offshore Wind (WFO).

Foto: Westwood Global Energy Group
Westwood has trimmed its outlook “primarily due to project cancellations,” said the report. This includes Orsted scrapping two of America's largest wind farm projects, the 1.1GW Ocean Wind 1 and 1.15GW Ocean Wind 2.
Westwood also cited Denmark’s decision to slam shut its ‘open door’ scheme for offshore wind projects, which it said contributed to 2GW of capacity removals.
WFO managing director Gunnar Herzig insisted that, “despite a bumpy year for the industry,” which was hit by supply chain issues, spiralling inflation and rising interest rates, the overall numbers show that offshore wind is “clearly on the rise.”

He cited the fact that 9.8GW of capacity was added across 25 new wind farms globally last year, up marginally on 9.4GW in 2022 – although this is still far off the high of 15.6GW seen in 2021.

Westwood also said that last year was positive for projects taking final investment decisions, with a record level of project capacity (23.8 GW) crossing that milestone – including the 2.9GW Hornsea 3 project in the UK.

The report found that 22.9GW worth of turbine contracts were awarded in 2023. Siemens Gamesa bagged 33% of the total – comfortably ahead of Vestas (3.1GW) and MingYang (1.8 GW).

Global offshore wind capacity hit 67.4GW by the end of last year, with almost 47% of this in China.

The average size of new offshore wind farms jumped to 392MW, from 225MW in 2022.

Worldwide, 282 offshore wind farms are currently in operation, 158 of which are in Asia, 122 in Europe and 2 in the US.

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Published 23 April 2024, 10:13Updated 23 April 2024, 10:19
Westwood EnergyWorld Forum Offshore WindUSNorth AmericaEurope