In Ireland, the Irish government announced in April 2021 that it plans to introduce the Maritime Area Planning (MAP) Bill 2021, which once passed should facilitate faster realisation of offshore wind projects, including FOW.īut while policy and regulatory environments are becoming increasingly favourable to FOW, project developers still need to obtain financing and establish commercially acceptable legal and technical risk mitigation frameworks to move the sector forward.īelow, we summarise some of the key considerations in relation to each of these topics. In October 2021, the UK government committed £160 million to support FOW development off the coasts of Scotland and Wales.
Full-scale commercial projects of 1GW and above are anticipated post-2030.
The UK currently has two operating FOW pilot projects: Equinor's 30MW Hywind Scotland project, the world’s first floating wind farm located 29km off the coast of Peterhead and the 50MW Kincardine project, 15km off the coast of Aberdeen, developed by Kincardine Offshore Wind (KOWL).įollowing the success of these projects, further UK pilots are planned and the first large-scale 100-300MW+ commercial projects are expected to come online within the next 5-10 years. Unconstrained by depth or coastal topography, floating wind turbines can go beyond the limits of traditional bottom-fixed offshore wind farms, opening up huge market potential.ĭriven by their climate policy objectives and geographical opportunities, the UK, Ireland and continental Europe are setting out to be among the leaders in FOW. Floating offshore wind (FOW) promises to deliver affordable clean energy at significant scale.
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