The pioneering floating wind technologies being readied for the first wave of utility-scale projects taking shape for construction off Europe, Asia and the US are betting on economies of scale to get to a levelised cost of energy (LCOE) below €50 ($56) per MWh before 2030, competitive with conventional, bottom-fixed offshore wind.
But Norway’s Equinor, US outfit Principle Power and France’s Ideol — all with sea-trialled units and multi-gigawatt international order pipelines waiting to be uncorked — could yet be beaten to that target by a number of next-generation concepts bound for market.
