Floating Wind Power Market Trends

Growth Drivers

• Growing investment in sustainable energy development – With minimal pollution and carbon emissions, wind energy is the renewable energy source that is expanding the fastest. Investment in energy development is boosted by the construction and administration of wind farms, the production of electricity from wind energy, and its delivery.
  
  According to the International Energy Agency, following a pause in 2021, wind energy investment surged by 20% in 2022, indicating a recovery in growth and raising the prospect of substantial capacity development in 2023. Except solar photovoltaics, which is the largest power production technology, investment hit a record USD 185 billion. This amount will rise in the upcoming years due to aggressive government targets, favorable policy, and strong competitiveness.
• Increased incorporation of robotics in offshore wind – Offshore wind has long been a major user of robots. The first widespread commercial application of remote-operated vehicles (ROVs) was in the construction of offshore wind farms. Ongoing projects are extensively implementing autonomous robots in floating wind power propelling the floating wind power market demand.
  
  For instance, in 2023, with the help of EDP NEW and additional technology partners, the INESC TEC-led ATLANTIS project successfully finished the first phase of testing its autonomous robots on a floating offshore wind platform. An underwater, surface, and airborne test platform (Atlantis Test Center) was established as part of this project to showcase autonomous robotic technologies and solutions that are critical for the upkeep and inspection of offshore wind farms.
• Increased use of advanced materials for manufacturing components – Turbine components are now lighter and stronger because of the application of cutting-edge materials like carbon fiber composites and cutting-edge production processes. According to the Sandia National Laboratories, carbon fiber wind blades weigh 25% less than wind blades composed of conventional fiberglass materials. This lowers the cost of materials and makes it possible to build larger turbines with greater rotor diameters and hub heights, which capture more wind energy and boost overall efficiency.

Challenges

• High installation and maintenance costs – The floating wind power market expansion of floating wind power may be constrained by the large initial expenditure. It can be costly to establish and maintain power cables under the ocean floor in order to transport electricity back to land. Building a stable and safe wind farm in water deeper than 200 feet (~60 m) is challenging.
  
  Wind turbines can sustain damage from hurricanes, strong storms, and wave movement. The development of floating wind turbines is further hindered by factors such as the initial expense of predevelopment of wind farms, legal authorization, technological aspects, engineering efforts, and similar constraints.
• Lack of skilled technicians – Evaluations of the failure rates of various turbine components show that the electrical systems have the highest annual failure rates of any fixed-base offshore wind turbine component, sometimes surpassing 0.5, with an average downtime of less than two days per failure. This is the result of several technological problems requiring the expertise of trained professionals.
  
  The optimization of power cabling connections for deep water offshore operations, modification of current manufacturing techniques to improve the performance of turbine blades, and improved analysis methods for combined wind and wave loading present on FOWT installations all contribute to the increased need for experts and professionals.