The UK’s offshore wind deployment has been an undoubted success. We host the top three largest offshore wind farms in the world, with the largest national offshore wind installed capacity outside China. We now have 15 GW of operating capacity, a further 15 GW through the planning permission and contracts for difference (CfD) processes and in different stages of installation, and a significant following pipeline gearing up for CfD bids this year and next.

A combination of geography and international law gives us access to an enormous marine space. Plus, of course, we have plenty of wind! It’s little wonder that the UK government’s Clean Power 2030 Action Plan sees offshore wind as a critical component of the pathway to clean power, anticipating 43–50 GW of operating capacity by 2030.

So, we’ve done well when you measure success in terms of GW. And, of course, with that, alongside massive innovation by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and the wider supply chain, has come significant cost reduction.

But what if you measure success in terms of jobs, supply chain development, intellectual property and exports? Aren’t these essential to the industry’s social licence and a just transition?

What are the strengths of UK offshore wind?
There are some fantastic bright spots. We’ve become expert at the development aspects of offshore wind farms, and UK companies are active in that space across most overseas markets. And we are globally recognised as being at the forefront of offshore wind operations and maintenance, and the learning and innovation that comes with that.

Take Grimsby. Growing up on Humberside in the 1970s and 1980s I would never have imagined global delegations flying to the UK to visit Grimsby. Now they do. A cluster of offshore wind operations bases, berthing for the latest service operations vessels (SOVs) and the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult’s O&M Centre of Excellence make Grimsby a must-see destination on any offshore wind world tour. And it’s not just Grimsby. Go to Newhaven, Lowestoft, Teesside, Buckie, Merseyside and many more, there’s a lot going on.

Looking past normal operations, being at the forefront of offshore wind deployment means the UK will soon become a test bed for large-scale life extensions, repowering and decommissioning. How will we handle the hundreds of older, lower capacity turbines in UK waters as they start to expire? What innovative new business models will emerge there?

A cluster of offshore wind operations bases, berthing for the latest service operations vessels, and the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult’s O&M Centre of Excellence make Grimsby a must-see destination on any offshore wind world tour.

What has been less successful?
We’ve had less success in the capital phase of projects, in particular component supply and installation, including specialist vessels. Capital-phase UK content remains stubbornly low, typically in the 25% range. It’s hard to disagree with Lord Patrick Vallance’s remark, in his landmark 2018 report, Foresight: Future of the Sea, that this is a ‘missed opportunity’.

That’s not to say that the UK can or should be making everything that goes into an offshore wind farm. The structure of our economy doesn’t necessarily support that. But we can do more, recognising that the UK is already highly successful in other areas of advanced manufacturing such as defence, automotive and aerospace. Major new investments by Siemens in blade manufacturing in Hull, by SEAH Wind creating monopiles on Teesside, and by JDR Cables, Sumitomo and XLCC in cables production in north-east England and Scotland, are testament to that.

My 2023 report on UK offshore wind, Seizing our Opportunities, proposed the development of an Industrial Growth Plan, based on a sober and thorough make-or-buy analysis, to form an underpin to a wider package of supply chain support measures.

The aim was not to be exclusionary, and I have no doubt we will see innovative UK breakthroughs in areas which the analysis might put in the ‘buy’ category. The aim was simply to ensure that scarce resources (whether that be government financial support, other grant programmes, or political capital) are focused on products and services where the probability of success is greater, where the UK can be genuinely competitive internationally, whether by leveraging comparative advantage or an opportunity for technological disruption.

We are now seeing the emergence of that package.

The make-or-buy assessment was published in October 2023 in the form of the UK Supply Chain Capability Analysis report, with the Industrial Growth Plan finally launched by the Offshore Wind Industry Council (OWIC), RenewableUK, The Crown Estate and Crown Estate Scotland in April 2024. A vast amount of work is ongoing across the sector to breathe life into, and operationalise, the plan, and I was delighted that just before last Christmas Energy Minister Michael Shanks MP was able to announce OWIC’s decision to designate the Offshore Wind Growth Partnership as the plan’s delivery body.

In parallel, The Crown Estate – taking its lead in some part from Crown Estate Scotland – has included social value and port strategy requirements into its leasing process for Celtic Sea floating offshore wind (as well as running a Supply Chain Accelerator funding programme). And at COP29 the UK Department of Energy Security and Net Zero announced the Clean Industries Bonus, which aims to use the CfD to incentivise and partially de-risk investments by offshore wind developers in deprived regions of the UK and/or lower carbon supply chains, with the Industrial Growth Plan directly referenced in the policy.

We now need to see the results of these reforms come through, in combination with the impact of ongoing offshore wind port capacity investments and the greater confidence in the project pipeline which should flow from the ambitions and steps laid out in the Clean Power 2030 Action Plan. The focus on clean energy industries in the government’s Invest 2035 modern industrial strategy consultation was extremely welcome, and we await the more detailed sector plan which will flow from that. And, of course, we need to be prepared to pivot and adapt: nothing in this space stands still.

So, going back to my original point: how to measure success. GW, yes of course. Cost reduction, absolutely (we all have a stake in lower energy bills). But let’s not forget jobs, supply chain development, intellectual property and exports.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are strictly those of the author only and are not necessarily given or endorsed by or on behalf of the Energy Institute.

• Further reading: ‘Who is going to do the work?’. Skills take the longest to develop but are the most valuable in the whole supply chain. Work to prepare for 2050, the UK’s net zero target, must start now, as the workers who will be in their professional prime by then are still at school. Many recent reports analyse skills needs and new educational initiatives are starting up nationwide.
• Alastair Dutton, Co-founder of the online course provider Offshore Wind Learning, explains why the oil and gas industry can prove a fine base from which to enter the growing offshore wind sector.