On Saturday MAKE Consultancy, a wind energy specialized Danish consultancy firm, published a business analysis on the offshore wind market.

The year 2009 saw the wind industry installing 620 MW, 80 percent more than 2008. And in 2010 the annual installed capacity is expected to double. There is good news for investors as well. According to MAKE (pdf) the compound annual growth rate over the period between 2010 and 2015 lies at 43 percent – guaranteeing good revenues.

Although these prospects may seem good – the foundations for the offshore market are still unstable. ‘Northern Europe’ would be leading demand. That would be Germany and the UK, the two of them creating 50 percent of total demand. Other European countries (Denmark has a relatively high installed wind output – but low growth) lag far behind and on all of the American continent not a single offshore wind park has been built yet. China is in for the race though. With Sinovel they have a wind turbine competitor to German and Danish market leaders (90 percent) Siemens and Vestas – but the Chinese do also contribute on the demand side, building their own offshore wind parks.

In 2015 offshore wind energy will make up 8 percent of total installed wind capacity worldwide.

© Rolf Schuttenhelm | www.bitsofscience.org