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Page 40: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (June 2011)
Feature: Annual World Yearbook
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36Maritime Reporter & Engineering News amongst investors is slowly growing but cautiousness remains. The reliance on the European Investment Bank to support projects is risky. Further commitment from Governments is needed beyond the near-term future in order to give comfort to the banks and private equity. The level of investment required is unlikely to match investors appetites otherwise. Supply chain development is happen- ing quickly and there is greater distinc-tion between the offshore and onshore sectors. A year ago the UK may have had the most offshore wind capacity in the world but it had little to show for it. Twelve months on and multiple offshore turbine manufacturers are establishing themselves in the country and other areas of the supply chain are following suit, re- invigorating troubled manufacturing companies. In 2010 turbine manufactur- ers Siemens, Clipper, Mitsubishi, GE and Gamesa all committed to a UK presence.Off Germany, careful investment over the past five years is paying rewards, with German companies now taking a large share of the European market. To date there have been few options for developers in terms of turbines. Vestas and Siemens have held dominance over the market with their 3MW and 3.6MW turbines respectively. The advent of 5MW class turbines has helped open themarket with 5MW and 6MW turbines from Repower Systems and the 5MW Multibrid turbine from Areva Wind. These smaller manufacturers are now taking market share from the leaders as projects off Germany move forward and larger-still UK projects draw near. Technology progression is visible and offers the potential for greater efficiency and cost savings. Developing installation techniques, such as increasing the use ofdynamic positioning on vessels, appears to be demonstrating time savings. Many new installation vessels are under con- struction in Asian yards from existing and new operators seeking to win a share of the burgeoning industry. With projects using larger hardware in more demand- ing locations, newbuild vessels must be specified to cope with the changing na- ture of sites. Changes in the operations and mainte-nance phase are taking place. The first offshore accommodation platform has been installed at Horns Rev II with a fur- ther two contracted for other projects. Personnel transfer vessels will be in high demand and are evolving to suit the needs of new projects. Turbine reliability is often an area manufacturers shy away from offshore, although Repower Sys- tems has been boasting of over 97% availability on its 5MW turbines at the Alpha Ventus project off Germany ? comparable to an onshore site. These are figures investors want to hear and which bring confidence to the industry. CONCLUSIONSWith over 3GW of capacity online by the end of 2010 and a further 2GW underconstruction, the offshore wind industryis stronger than ever. While the UK has helped build the momentum in recent years (and will continue to do so) thelarge German market is now coming to life with project construction finally un- derway. Outside of Europe there is a spark of activity in China which could generate the largest market worldwide in as little as ten years.2011 YEARBOOKOFFSHORE WIND MARKET REPORTGlobal OverviewOffshore Windfarms in Operation, Under Construction and Planned (in MW)In operation Under construction Planned Canada- - 1,750 MW United States- - 23,865 MW Albania-- 1,259 MW Belgium195 MW - 1,594 MW Denmark876 MW 12 MW 873 MW Egypt- - 1,200 MW Estonia- - 1,700 MW Finland30 MW - 3,736 MW France- - 3,000 MW Germany185 MW 335 MW 25,105 MW Ireland 25 MW - 1,828 MW Italy1 MW - 2,147 MW Malta- - 200 MW Netherlands247 MW - 5,423 MW Norway 2.3 MW - 10,435 MW Poland- - 299 MW Romania- - 500 MW Spain10 MW - 500 MW Sweden163 MW - 2,857 MW United Kingdom 1,341 MW 2,238 MW 43,652 MW The offshore wind power industry has some way to go to prove it can take its place as a sustainable part of the energy mix, according to Offshore Proof, a survey com- missioned by PwC of major players in the industry including developers, manufactur-ers and utilities firms. Source: GBI Research, PwC analysis (data gathered April 2011) Buy This ReportThe new edition of The World Offshore Wind Market Report by energy indus- try analysts Douglas-Westwood exam- ines the current and future prospects,technologies and markets for the off- shore wind energy sector. It is the de- finitive report of the sector, used by investment banks, manufacturing and installation contractors and depart-ments of government worldwide. Further information is available at Web: www.dw-1.com Email: [email protected] Tel: +44 1227 780999The AuthorsIan Jones is an analyst for DW, con- tributing to the firms commissioned research, commercial due diligence andpublished market studies in the oil and gas and renewable energy sectors. Re- cent work includes a major study on building an industry for RenewableUK (Formerly BWEA), a major strategic study on Norways offshore wind op- tions and 2020 targets for the UKs De- partment of Business, Economics &Regulatory Reform. He is a contribut- ing author of DWs renewable energy publications including The World Wave & Tidal Energy Market Report and The World Offshore Wind Market Report. As a senior analyst, Frank Wrightproject manages commissioned re-search and market studies with a focus on renewable energy. He studied me- chanical engineering at the University of Edinburgh and then worked for Ab- erdeen Drilling Consultants as a proj-ect engineer. He then completed a postgraduate degree in Industrial De- sign Engineering including a designproject with Unilever. At ITI Energy he worked as a technology analyst carry- ing out detailed market assessments and developing R&D programme pro- posals. Prior to joining Douglas-West- wood, Frank led market analysis activity at Scottish Enterprise in off- shore wind and was on the selection panel for the Wave and Tidal Energy: Research, Development and Demon- stration Support (WATERS) fund. Europe is the focus for offshore wind activity. Installations off the UK continue to increase pace, German projects are now entering construction, Belgium continues to develop at a modest paceand activity is imminentagain off the Netherlands.