‘Shallow water’ floating wind projects are set to be key to spurring expansion of the sector toward its first gigawatts of installed plant, representing a “huge prize” for the companies that can commercially build lead-off arrays in waters of less than 100m, according to latest calculations from Aegir Insights.
The Copenhagen-based analyst, which expects the 106MW of floating turbines turning today to multiply to some 12GW by 2030, sees developments in water depths closer to those traditionally occupied by conventional foundations as being “massively neglected” to date by industry despite floating’s ever-lower levellised cost of energy (LCOE).
