Offshore Wind Market Size, Share, Development, Growth and Demand Forecast to 2023

Market Overview

Offshore wind power is generated from wind farms constructed in the ocean on the continental shelf. These wind farms are installed in the ocean for energy harvesting purpose. Offshore medium offers greater wind speed as compared to offshore medium. As a result of greater wind speed, electricity generation capacity is higher for these farms as compared onshore setting. Under the scope of this study, offshore wind technology has been covered. The offshore wind market has been segmented on the basis of architecture, component, location, and region.

On the basis of architecture, the offshore wind market has been segmented into hardware, software, and services. Hardware includes the building components and instrumentation being used to build wind turbines. In 2017, hardware held the largest share in the market. Software includes structural analysis software, bladed modelling software, system analysis software etc. Significant amount of revenue is generated in the market through services and maintenance of these power generation facilities. Owing to aging of existing wind farms located in sea, demand for services and maintenance is growing. This in turn, driving the growth of services segment of the offshore wind market.

On the basis of component, the offshore wind market has been segmented into turbine, substructure, electrical infrastructure, and others. Turbine is sub segmented into nacelle, rotors and blades, and tower. Substructure is further segmented into monopile, jacket and gravity based, and others. As compared to other components, cost of turbine is significantly high owing to high volume of raw material requirement for its production. In addition, manufacturing subcomponents of turbine such as components nacelle, rotors and blades, and tower require significant amount monetary investments. In order to recover manufacturing cost and retain margin, manufacturers of turbine also adopt premium pricing model for their offerings. Owing to these factors, turbine is expected to remain largest segment in the market during the forecast period.

On the basis of location, the offshore wind market has been segmented into shallow water (<30m depth), transitional water (30m–50m depth), and deep water (>50m depth). Developing wind farms in the deep water is a cost intensive as well as resource hungry process. However, deep water location offers benefits such as higher wind speed and electricity generation capacity.

Market Dynamics

Growth drivers

The global offshore wind market is driven by factors such as growing demand for renewable energy across different industries, and government supports across different countries promoting the use renewable energy such as wind, hydro, and solar. For example, in September 2017, U.K government has created renewable support auction to provide monetary benefits to low-carbon power schemes. Such government support has decreased the per unit consumption cost of wind energy, which in turn fueling its demand among consumers. In order to fulfill this surplus demand, developers are expanding offshore wind infrastructure. This has acted as supply side growth driver for the offshore wind market.

Restraints

Installing wind farms in the ocean is not only costly process but also require significant amount technology expertise and infrastructural requirement. Such factors have increased minimum efficiency scale (MES) the industry. This has been identified as major restraint for the offshore wind market.

Opportunities

Currently, penetration of distributed energy systems is minimum in the offshore wind market owing lack of availability of supportive technology and high cost barriers. However, distributed wind energy offers benefits such as uninterrupted power supply, offsetting large loads locating nearby, and cost optimization during service lifecycle. In coming years, by developing distributed the offshore wind market wind farms will provide similar kind of benefits to customers.

Insights by geography

Based on geography, the global offshore wind market has been segmented into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Rest of the World (RoW). On the basis of both value and volume, Europe dominated the market in 2017. The offshore renewable energy development technology introduced early in Europe as compared to other parts of the world. In addition, wide penetration wind farms projects in different countries also fueled the penetration of this technology in Europe. Europe is expected to maintain its dominant position in the offshore wind market throughout the forecast period.

Competitive Landscape

Some of the major players operating in the global offshore wind market are Enercon GmbH, Siemens AG, General Electric Company, Nordex SE, Vestas Wind Systems A/S, Suzlon Group, Sinovel Wind Group Co., Ltd., Adwen, Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction Co., Ltd, and Senvion S.A.