Market Challenges And Opportunities

Global Offshore Wind Market: Market Restraints

High capital cost and logistics issues

Offshore wind is one of the most promising and eco-friendly energy-producing technologies. Though it has a high-capacity factor compared with related technologies such as solar and onshore wind, its huge capital cost is deterring its implementation. Offshore wind turbines are susceptible to erosion, as they operate for decades in harsh marine environments. Sometimes, even the most advantageous features, such as high wind speeds, become a negative factor for offshore wind turbines. For instance, the turbines tend to shut down when the wind speed exceeds 25 m/s. As the size of offshore wind farms has increased over time, challenges related to construction, transportation, installation, and operation have also increased. Challenges associated with logistics, in general, are a greater task in offshore wind farms. Wind farms are usually located very far from the shore and are difficult to access, especially in bad weather conditions. Hence, rectifying even the smallest technical issue could be tricky and costly. Other challenging factors in offshore wind power deployment relate to resource characterization, grid interconnection and operation, and the development of transmission infrastructure, which are much simpler in other technologies, such as solar and onshore wind. Thus, the high capital costs and issues associated with operations, maintenance, transportation, and logistics restrain the global market.