Offshore wind pipeline grows to more than 41GW

Published 28 October 2020

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Offshore wind pipeline grows to more than 41GW

The total capacity of offshore winds projects in the UK that are either operational, under construction or at some stage of development or planning, has grown to 41.3GW, new figures from RenewableUK have revealed.

The tally is up 12 per cent from January when it stood at 36.9GW.

The trade association said the UK has once again retained its top spot in its global rankings, with China moving up to second with 26.1GW and the US remaining in third with 17.8GW. Germany has dropped from second to sixth after its pipeline dropped by nearly a third between January and October from 16.5GW to 11.7GW.

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RenewableUK deputy chief executive, Melanie Onn, said: “The global appetite to develop new offshore wind projects remains enormous, despite the pandemic this year, as this research proves. The UK and many other countries are counting on the rapid growth of the offshore wind sector to be a key driver in the worldwide green economic recovery.

“The UK remains the biggest market for offshore wind in the world and our capacity is set to quadruple over the course of this decade following the Prime Minister’s landmark commitment to power every UK home with offshore wind by 2030.

“As well as providing clean, low-cost power, our industry will continue to revitalise coastal communities, grow the UK supply chain and export our offshore wind goods and services around the world, as our unrivalled expertise is now in huge demand globally”.

The UK also has the most operational offshore wind capacity at 10.4GW. Germany is in second place with 7.7GW and China in third with 4.6GW.