UK’s offshore wind pipeline nears 100GW

The UK’s offshore wind pipeline is rapidly approaching 100GW after growing by more than 6.6GW over the last year.

Renewable UK said offshore wind capacity is currently on track to reach around 40GW by 2029, indicating more projects will need to be brought forward or added to the pipeline to achieve the government’s target of deploying 50GW by the end of the decade.

According to trade body, the total capacity of offshore windfarms that are operational, under construction or in development now stands at more than 97.9GW – up from 91.3GW a year ago. This includes nearly 13.7GW that is fully commissioned, almost 1.1GW that is partially operational and more than 1.6GW under construction.

The vast majority is located in the North Sea, with almost 42GW of this in Scottish waters and more than 33.8GW in English waters.

Orsted holds the largest share of operational offshore wind capacity at 22%, followed by RWE with 14%, GIG with 7%, Iberdrola with 5% and Vattenfall with 4%. Meanwhile, SSE has the largest share of the 84.2GW new build pipeline at 10%, followed by Iberdrola with 9% and then Cerulean Winds, Orsted and RWE with around 7% each.

Contracts for Difference

Renewable UK said almost 20GW of capacity has so far been awarded Contracts for Difference (CfDs), of which just over 7GW is fully commissioned.

Another 5.2GW of offshore wind is eligible to bid in the fifth allocation round, which commenced at the end of March. If all of these bids are successful, then the cumulative operational capacity of CfD projects is set to reach around 25GW by 2028.

Orsted is currently the largest contract holder by far, having secured CfDs for 4.6GW of capacity over the allocation rounds to date. It is followed by RWE and SSE with around 1.9GW each and then Iberdrola with 1.8GW, Equinor with nearly 1.6GW and Vattenfall with 1.4GW.

Iberdrola and Vattenfall both look set to jump up the ranking, accounting for the vast majority of eligible capacity (1.7GW and 2.8GW respectively) in the fifth allocation round.

The Global Race

The UK remains a world-leader in offshore wind, with its portfolio accounting for almost one-tenth of the total global pipeline of roughly 1TW (excluding overlapping projects) and second only to that of China (156.9GW). The US comes in third with 82.5GW. With overlapping projects included, the total global pipeline is 1.23TW.

The UK also has second largest portfolio of floating offshore wind, accounting for 35GW of the global pipeline of 254GW and only slightly behind Italy with 36.3GW. Three-quarters of the UK’s floating wind pipeline is located in the Scottish portion of the North Sea. Ireland has the third largest floating wind portfolio with 24.3GW.

Global offshore wind pipeline

Commenting on the figures, Renewable UK chief executive Dan McGrail said both the UK and global pipelines are” continuing to grow at pace, with new projects coming forward on a massive scale.”

He continued: “While the UK has established itself as a global leader in both fixed-bottom and floating wind, we cannot afford to be complacent. More and more countries are fleshing out their offshore ambitions, with clear plans for future developments and industrial strategies to accompany them.

He said recent developments such as the Inflation Reduction Act in the US and the EU’s Green Industrial Deal have increased competition for investment: “We must double down on our efforts to support and accelerate offshore wind development, and I’d encourage the Chancellor to bring forward new measures in the Autumn budget to incentivise manufacturing investment into the UK that might otherwise go overseas.”

*All charts provided by Renewable UK