Only a handful of European ports could accommodate the infrastructure needed to support large-scale floating wind farms, said a study from LOC Renewables.

The consultancy looked at 96 ports to assess their ability to host the manufacturing and operations facilities required for projects far bigger than Equinor’s 30MW Hywind Scotland, the floating sector’s largest development to date.

Floating wind’s specific requirements – for example sufficient space for quayside assembly and storage of finished units pre-tow out – could currently be met by only a few in Scotland, Norway and Spain, said the report, prepared for UK body the Carbon Trust.

LOC Renewables also concluded much of the current vessel and equipment stock serving the fixed-bottom sector would be unsuited to floating wind deployment, meaning replacements will have to be developed.

RV Ahilan, joint CEO of LOC Group, said: “As the industry develops the necessary technologies to make floating offshore wind commercially viable, there is an urgent need for investment in port infrastructure to avoid delays in the deployment of large-scale floating offshore wind farms.”

Floating wind power is on a worldwide updraft following the start-up of Hywind Scotland, with utility-scale projects moving ahead off Japan and the US as well as in Europe, where advocacy body WindEurope points to 350MW of capacity being switched on by 2021.

The sector got another boost earlier this month when France's first offshore wind installation, the FloatGen floating prototype, exported its first kWh to the electricity grid for developer Ideol.

Analysts are widely forecasting the floating wind sector will grow to some 12GW by 2030 as the technology’s levellised cost of energy drops to €40-60/MWh ($47-71/MWh).

Wind

European ports 'couldn't handle floating wind': study