Opportunities offshore: the race to the ports

This week, the EWEA released its latest figures on offshore wind development. Of the 108 European offshore turbines constructed between January and June of this year, 101 were built in the UK. On the surface at least, there are reasons to be positive.

In the UK, with growing opposition to onshore wind, and with such developments at a five year low, offshore wind continues to make sense from a planning perspective, even if prospects for long term financing of offshore wind remain unclear.

However, while it may be tempting to sound the fanfare for UK offshore, it’s perhaps worth setting it all in context. Particularly as our continental cousins start sizing up the ports.

Onshore wind developments in Europe are much denser than schemes in the UK, thereby utilising the area given over to wind projects much more efficiently. Indeed, recent figures from RenewableUK show that for every onshore turbine per 100km in the UK, there are 11 in Denmark and 6 in Germany. The continent makes much better use of its onshore wind resources than we do.

The levels of ‘nimbyism’ are less from a European perspective also. And in Germany, for example, with Chancellor’s Merkel’s recent ruling on nuclear energy, the population are more familiar with the idea of onshore wind on a large scale.

However, such factors shouldn’t detract from the UK's offshore success and it's great to see that - on the surface at least - collaborations such as the Forewind partnership at Doggerbank are already starting to deliver. In the coming months, it will be interesting to see whether this initial momentum can be maintained.

This week, the EWEA released its latest figures on offshore wind development. Of the 108 European offshore turbines constructed between January and June of this year, 101 were built in the UK. On the surface at least, there are reasons to be positive.

In the UK, with growing opposition to onshore wind, and with such developments at a five year low, offshore wind continues to make sense from a planning perspective, even if prospects for long term financing of offshore wind remain unclear.

However, while it may be tempting to sound the fanfare for UK offshore, it’s perhaps worth setting it all in context. Particularly as our continental cousins start sizing up the ports.

Onshore wind developments in Europe are much denser than schemes in the UK, thereby utilising the area given over to wind projects much more efficiently. Indeed, recent figures from RenewableUK show that for every onshore turbine per 100km in the UK, there are 11 in Denmark and 6 in Germany. The continent makes much better use of its onshore wind resources than we do.

The levels of ‘nimbyism’ are less from a European perspective also. And in Germany, for example, with Chancellor’s Merkel’s recent ruling on nuclear energy, the population are more familiar with the idea of onshore wind on a large scale.

However, such factors shouldn’t detract from the UK's offshore success and it's great to see that - on the surface at least - collaborations such as the Forewind partnership at Doggerbank are already starting to deliver. In the coming months, it will be interesting to see whether this initial momentum can be maintained.

This week, the EWEA released its latest figures on offshore wind development. Of the 108 European offshore turbines constructed between January and June of this year, 101 were built in the UK. On the surface at least, there are reasons to be positive.

In the UK, with growing opposition to onshore wind, and with such developments at a five year low, offshore wind continues to make sense from a planning perspective, even if prospects for long term financing of offshore wind remain unclear.

However, while it may be tempting to sound the fanfare for UK offshore, it’s perhaps worth setting it all in context. Particularly as our continental cousins start sizing up the ports.

Onshore wind developments in Europe are much denser than schemes in the UK, thereby utilising the area given over to wind projects much more efficiently. Indeed, recent figures from RenewableUK show that for every onshore turbine per 100km in the UK, there are 11 in Denmark and 6 in Germany. The continent makes much better use of its onshore wind resources than we do.

The levels of ‘nimbyism’ are less from a European perspective also. And in Germany, for example, with Chancellor’s Merkel’s recent ruling on nuclear energy, the population are more familiar with the idea of onshore wind on a large scale.

However, such factors shouldn’t detract from the UK's offshore success and it's great to see that - on the surface at least - collaborations such as the Forewind partnership at Doggerbank are already starting to deliver. In the coming months, it will be interesting to see whether this initial momentum can be maintained.