Offshore Wind Gets Cheaper And Bigger
Offshore innovation widens renewable energy options
September 2018 (International Renewable Energy Agency)
“…Offshore wind energy has recently seen rapid technology cost reductions and substantial uptake in different markets…90% of global installed offshore wind capacity is in the North Sea and nearby Atlantic Ocean, but capacity is growing elsewhere…The offshore wind market grew by around 4 gigawatts (GW) in 2017, accounting for around 10% of total wind capacity additions that year. The total investment value for this 4 GW was around USD 20 billion…Denmark, Germany and the United Kingdom (UK) were pioneers in the sector and are now established leaders, with China recently emerging…[Incentives are need to grow today’s 20 GW installed capacity to IRENA’s 2050 target of] more than 520 GW…[which] would account for nearly 4% of global electricity generation…
…From 2020 to 2022 the cost of electricity from newly commissioned offshore wind power projects will range from USD 0.06/kilowatt-hour (kWh) to USD 0.10/kWh based on current trends and the prices awarded in auctions in 2016-2018, a significant decline compared to USD 0.14/kWh in 2017…Advances in offshore wind turbine technology, wind farm development, and operations and maintenance are helping to drive down the cost…Increasing developer experience (which reduces project development costs), increasing industry maturity (lower cost of capital) and economies of scale across the value chain are also helping to lower costs…[and are] anticipated to stay below USD 4 000/kW…[New projects are expected] to have 50% capacity factors by 2022 as turbine size grows and the technology improves. Further gains are possible, as 12 megawatt (MW) pilots are in development that are significantly larger than today’s largest 9.5 MW turbine…” click here for more
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