Renewables surpassed fossil fuels as the top energy source, providing 38% of Europeans’ electricity needs. Although still overshadowed by wind farms on land, offshore wind energy is making a march of its own. In 2020, Europe boosted its offshore capacity by 2.9 GW, and today with over 5,000 offshore turbines generates a total of 25 GW of installed capacity across twelve countries. This, however, is still far behind the EU’s ambitions to rely on at least 60 GW of offshore capacity by 2030 and get to 300 GW by 2050. The European Commission also wants to see today’s offshore’s 3% contribution to the electricity market go up to 15% in 2030 and 30% by mid-century. The industry’s desire to expand is there. Take Belgium, where in the last decade wind farm developer and operator Parkwind has built four offshore wind parks, which now deliver almost 10% of the country’s energy demand and have helped the small nation become one of the world’s five leading countries on offshore wind projects. And Parkwind provides only a third of Belgium’s total installed offshore capacity.
Although in 2020, offshore wind in Europe received a record 26 billion euros in investments and investors are increasingly exploring Spain, Portugal, and other wind-rich areas in the Mediterranean Sea, WindEurope says that the geography of offshore wind will not change that much. Waters in northern Europe, which are shallower, will probably continue to host 85% of the continent’s offshore wind projects – seeing a bigger density of wind parks. Given that offshore wind turbines can be installed mainly in relatively shallow waters and connecting them to the electricity grid requires proximity to land, finding the space close to shore with good wind conditions is critical. Offshore wind is just the last of the industries coming to use the seabed and sea space. Across Europe, ports are dedicating space for offshore wind activities – whether as sites for transporting turbines to construction sites, manufacturing and maintaining parts or as export hubs for offshore components. Harbours in Amsterdam, Bilbao, Cherbourg, Gdynia, or Aalborg are part of WindEurope’s Offshore Wind Ports Platform, which brings together ports already supporting offshore wind or interested to learn how to boost the industry. By concentrating key activities in one place, ports can help cut costs, making offshore wind energy competitive with other renewables.