Page 18: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (April 2026)

WTIVs © Sergii Figurnyi/AdobeStock

The global bottom-? xed offshore wind turbine and foundation installation market

WTIV

By Philip Lewis, Research Director, Intelatus Global Partners he last two or three years have seen a change in the (SAM) is moving through the gears to establish offshore wind underlying stakeholder support for the energy transi- markets, and India (ISC) may soon turn plans into auctions.

tion, resulting in the energy trilemma being focused This ever-changing market has an impact on the wind tur- more on energy security and affordability than transi- bine and foundation installation market, where investment de-

T tion, which means a pivot away from renewables to increased cisions for the latest generation vessels were generally made in support for oil & gas. At the same time, in? ation and interest more stable and promising times. As a result, utilization could rates have impacted project economics. Needless to say, these be challenging, impacting day rates and ? nancial returns.

factors have impacted the global offshore wind forecast and the These are some of the ? ndings from a new bottom-up analy- supply and demand balance for wind turbine installation and sis and report by Intelatus Global Partners of the bottom-? xed major component exchange (MCE) and foundation installation. turbine and foundation installation and maintenance market.

It is not all bad news. The UK and North Seas European Changing demand has impacted the wind turbine and countries are planning to increase offshore wind capacity (to foundation installation supply & demand balance, resulting increase energy security and affordability through scale) and in tight to over-supply during the forecast period.

advance grid integration (to manage localized offshore wind The global offshore wind forecast (excl. China) has “moved farm intermittency and stabilize the grid). Poland is advanc- to the right” over the last year or so due to cancelled projects, ing its offshore wind agenda. Mediterranean countries will disappointing auctions, cost increases and political headwinds. enter the market. The big three EAPAC players (Japan, South The 2035 commissioned capacity forecast is ~230GW, of

Korea and Taiwan) will continue to advance offshore wind which over 90% features bottom-? xed technology. Europe ac- auctions and capacity development and will soon be joined counts for over 70% of capacity additions and EAPAC 20%. by Australia and the Philippines. In North America (NAM) In NAM, the project pipeline has been severely impacted by

Atlantic Canada is looking to ? ll some of the hole left by the the current federal administration’s campaign against offshore withdrawal of the USA from offshore wind, South America wind projects and Canada looks to make a market entry in the 18 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • April 2026

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