A shortage of wind turbine installation vessels (WTIVs) will restrict the growth of the global offshore wind industry within the next five years, a webinar was told on Tuesday.

Part of the problem is that much of the existing fleet is too small to install the supersized 12MW-plus turbines that are already being ordered for future projects — an issue that is already having a negative impact on GE’s offshore wind business, the event heard.

“GE have even lost projects that we wanted to bid for because we couldn’t find a vessel to support our bid,” David Matthews, sales director for Northern Europe wind at GE Renewables told the Wind Turbine Installation Vessels — Installing the Future webinar hosted by shipping analyst...