Global Markets for Offshore Wind Turbines

This Report Includes:

• A brief description of the global market for offshore wind turbines
• Insight into how technology and market development will create additional revenue and new product categories

Due to rapid worldwide urbanization and industrialization, the demand for electricity, particularly in emerging economies, has swelled. Simultaneously, the push to reduce carbon emissions is also growing. As a result of both these factors, the need for renewable energy sources has heightened. Offshore wind is viewed as a much more environmentally friendly energy source than traditional approaches such as coal, oil, and gas. Offshore wind is attractive because it has the potential to create large energy volumes with minimal environmental impact. It is considered a prime energy source in the future. Consequently, the demand for offshore wind solutions is rising, and sales are increasing at double digit rates.

The offshore wind market is, however, a nascent business and thus exhibits both the potential and the pitfalls typically associated with an emerging, potentially game-changing force. The technology has been in existence for decades and generates billions in revenue globally. However, through the years, vendors have struggled to build cost-effective business models. Delivering these systems is a significant, complex undertaking. In addition, the offshore wind solutions are complicated; difficult to install and maintain; and ever changing. One issue is that wind creates energy on a sporadic basis.

While wind turbines work well when the wind is blowing, delivering energy on demand is a struggle. The industry has also grappled with the complexity of designing systems that store energy in an effective way. Finally, the challenge of integrating this energy source into existing power grids is also significant.