Global Offshore Wind Market to be Worth €130 Billion by 2020

A new report by Roland Berger, a top industry consultant, titled “Offshore Wind Toward 2020,” states that the global offshore wind sector is likely to grow to become a €130 billion market by 2020. A variety of factors are set to make offshore wind installations competitive with other forms of energy generation, and this will lead to a massive increase in the volume of capacity installed over the coming years.

The regions of Asia Pacific and North America currently have very small, almost non-existent, offshore wind sectors, but are expected to soon represent a significant market share as plans for new projects unfold; however Europe will still remain the dominant player in the global offshore wind industry.

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National policies across Europe have worked to encourage 5GW of offshore wind installations, with more than one new turbine being erected per business day in 2012. The European Union has set a 2020 target of achieving 35% of its electricity from renewables, with around 40GW of installed offshore capacity.

The plan is not just to meet this target and rest, but to gradually grow the industry a bit more each year, and then by 2020 reach the stage where 4.5GW of new offshore wind capacity is added each year.

Driven mostly by demand from Japan, China, South Korea, and Taiwan, the Asia pacific region hopes to add an extra 1.5GW of new capacity each year, and Canada, the US, and Mexico will begin adding 500MW annually.

By. James Burgess of Oilprice.com