Energy is big news these days for all sorts of good and bad reasons, but a new report suggests we could be doing a lot more with offshore wind to decarbonise the world.
The Global Wind Energy Council-GWEC-has just published a snapshot setting out big opportunities for floating offshore wind for countries across the globe. And the Asia Pacific region features prominently.
South Korea and Japan are already mature offshore wind markets, but GWEC says the Philippines is part of ‘chasing pack’ of 5 countries that also includes Ireland, Italy, Morocco and the USA.
It’s still early days for the floating offshore wind sector, but the report makes it clear that the technology has huge potential in helping the world reach Net Zero by 2050.
The technical potential for floating offshore wind dwarfs that of fixed-bottom turbines because they suit deeper water where winds are more consistent. But they warn it needs political leadership and support to make it a reality.
GWIC outlines the sort of action and policies government can take to make it happen. For example the Philippines has sites with good resources located close to load centres, but tariffs and infrastructure could pose challenges without government action.
Australia currently doesn’t have any offshore wind farms floating or otherwise, but new national and state laws should help ease the bottleneck given that estimates suggest the sector has the potential to exceed the country’s entire electricity generation.
A bunch of projects have now been announced with some including plans for floating turbines. Of course it will also depend on sustainably sourced Australian copper to power the turbines, undersea cables and grid connections, but we already have plenty of that.
Detail: https://gwec.net/report-outlines-enormous-potential-for-floating-offshore-wind-in-energy-transition/
Cheers, John Fennell
