Under its April 2024 Offshore Wind Industrial Growth Plan, an alliance of the Offshore Wind Industry Council, The Crown Estate and Crown Estate Scotland, and RenewableUK proposed that UK manufacturing capacity could be tripled in the next 10 years.

At the time of launch, Claire Mack, Chief Executive of Scottish Renewables said: ‘The UK stands on the cusp of a golden opportunity to build a world-class offshore wind supply chain.’ What’s more, she sees the Industrial Growth Plan charting a clear course for the collaboration needed between governments and industry in the years ahead.

Tim Pick, former Offshore Wind Champion and now Chair of the Offshore Wind Growth Partnership, put the cat amongst the pigeons when he admitted to the All-Energy 2024 delegates that he oscillates between ‘euphoria one minute and depression the next!’ He emphasised that the UK is not alone in this endeavour, and claimed: ‘Many of our overseas friends are looking at what we do and seeking to learn from how we endeavour to build out offshore wind.’

Pointedly, Pick saw Auction Round 5 as ‘a game of chicken where both sides lost – the government and energy companies!’ However: ‘It didn’t have to be that way, and wasn’t a great start when we see the valuation of the North Sea auctions.’

Looking forward, Pick said he is ‘still hopeful we can look back on a time when the UK has doubled down on a new generation of [offshore wind] technology for its future energy system'. Furthermore, he said: ‘There is a clear case for wind power-based approvals in the North Sea and Celtic Sea sending a ripple of confidence through the ports and country.’

He also recognised there were many reasons for bottlenecks in the supply chain: global politics, the impact of the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the critical absence of sustainable partners in the supply chain.

Nevertheless, ‘the funding seems to be coming together’, he said. As to the £500mn fund committed over five years by the Scottish government and the Crown Estate to catalyse private investment in offshore wind infrastructure and manufacturing facilities, ‘we’re hoping [it] will accelerate more developer-led initiatives’, Pick said.

‘There is a clear case for wind power-based approvals in the North Sea and Celtic Sea sending a ripple of confidence through the ports and country.’ – Tim Pick, former Offshore Wind Champion and now Chair of the Offshore Wind Growth Partnership  
 

A pipeline of opportunities  
At All-Energy, Christopher Pearson, Project Director at Flotation Energy, maintained that it was important for floating energy initiatives to move forward consistently. He said that most people are impressed by the scale of offshore wind initiatives in the North Sea. ‘These are large-scale projects which really show the energy transition in action.’

He mentioned that the several billions of capital expenditure (capex) earmarked on existing offshore wind projects and infrastructure was ‘a pipeline of opportunities’. However, ‘the issue is how well knowledge from fixed offshore installations can be transferred to floating offshore projects… and assure that a suitable supply chain will be coming’.

Jonathan Cole, Chief Executive Officer of Corio Generation, added that one of the big bottlenecks in offshore wind is the build-out of the transmission system. ‘Because there is a lack of strategic planning of the network and a lack of willingness to meet anticipated issues with a system which is fit-for-purpose in the original design.’

But it’s all part of a bigger picture in the drive towards net zero.

Susan Lind, Managing Director of BlueFloat Energy and Renantis Partnership, pointed out that expanding offshore wind is a global ambition. According to COP28 in Dubai, offshore wind capacity needs to triple globally within 10 years to tackle climate change. ‘With a predicted 380 GW capacity across 32 markets, this is an incredible economic opportunity,’ she said. ‘If we can scale up to meet this demand, Scotland could potentially lead the world, creating 100,000 jobs by 2030, which will stimulate economic growth, increase our energy security and create vast new wealth.’ However, she admitted: ‘We will still face inflationary pressures, supply chain bottlenecks, rising opex and increased global competition.’

Gillian Morrison, Supply Chain Development Manager, Crown Estate Scotland, also claimed that floating wind has the potential to achieve rapid growth, with sustainable business development and community and regional benefits for generations to come. Currently there is nearly 40 GW of wind farms operating in UK North Sea waters and 20 GW of that is floating wind energy under development.

Morrison insisted: ‘We cannot be complacent. This is a global market with ever-growing plans. Supporting the development of offshore wind is one of the most important roles that UK government is charged with.’

Concept of the Erebus floating wind farm to be sited in the Celtic Sea off Wales coast, being developed by TotalEnergies and the SimplyBlue Group as a 100 MW demonstrator, twice the power of Kincardine 
Photo: Blue Gem Group

The dangers of delay  
Maf Smith, Chief Executive of Lumen Energy, stressed the dangers of delay in development of floating offshore wind supply chains compared with foreign competition in this growing market.

He recognised there were learnings from fixed offshore wind installations, in terms of the benefits of having a standardised, industrial process for critical components when scaling up to high volumes, as well as lessons from oil and gas in terms of deep foundations and moorings. ‘But the danger in the floating wind market is developing late in support of a pipeline of projects in a massive supply chain, compared to the APAC [Asia-Pacific] countries and America.’

Offshore wind in action globally  
Chris Harvey, Category Director of Floating Wind at Corio Generation, said the company has 30 GW of offshore wind projects currently underway. The most advanced floating wind project is a 1.5 GW wind farm in South Korea with partner TotalEnergies, as well as having interests in projects across the UK, Norway, France and the Middle East, and longer-term interests in Spain and Portugal.

‘A number of individual demonstrators are planned and should be starting to order components,’ he said. ‘Beyond 2030, we see it [supply chain ordering] ramping up rapidly. By 2035, we expect that China will lead the way with 3.5 GW of floating wind, followed by South Korea and the Netherlands with 1.8 GW each, and France, the UK and US with 1.3 GW each.’

Moreover, he continued: ‘Floating offshore wind is a good market for the UK with a strong pipeline of potential projects. But we are not aligned to floating wind… it’s a bit of a luxury in some cases. And there’s a challenge in how to get the right resources to support offshore wind. The supply chain right now is struggling financially. They are focused on core projects which are typically more fixed-bottom as opposed to floating wind… The size and scale of the potential is large, but floating wind is in competition with other renewable energy markets.’

In conclusion  
On the critical issue of cost reduction in the floating wind sector, Pearson of Flotation Energy observed: ‘There’s a bit of a trade-off between innovation and cost reduction. We want to be innovative and bring down costs, but we want to be insurable at the same time. That’s why we see demonstration trials and the pre-commercial rig market as so important. There is a learning curve. If we can trial floating wind technology in small projects, and show them to be successful, it will give more certainty to the market.’

Suzanne Sasna, Director of Energy Transition at Scottish Enterprise, concluded: ‘Developing floating offshore wind is a global challenge. Generally, it requires collaboration by global contractors who are willing to share information. But the potential opportunity is enormous.’

• Further reading: ‘Green light for Europe’s first commercial-scale floating offshore wind farm’. The planned Green Volt project is expected to provide up to 560 MW of renewable energy.
• E-commerce giant Amazon has signed a corporate power purchase agreement (CPPA) with Engie, increasing its share of output from Scotland’s Moray West offshore wind farm to 473 MW, over half the wind farm’s capacity, when the site becomes operational later this year.