Rebecca Williams is Chief Strategy Officer for Offshore Wind at the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC). 

Rebecca recently led GWEC’s annual Global Offshore Wind Report (GOWR), launched on 17 June in South Korea, followed by subsequent global launches in the UK, Japan and China. 

Tell us more about the progress of the offshore wind sector over the past year

To date, offshore wind has achieved remarkable success establishing itself as a maturing, competitive, globally diverse, and scalable industry. 

In 2023, 10.8 GW of new offshore wind capacity was added to the grid worldwide, bringing the total global offshore wind capacity to 75.2 GW by the end of last year. 

This is a significant achievement for the industry considering the wider macroeconomic challenges and policy bottlenecks that impacted the global offshore wind industry last year, particularly in the US and UK - two key markets. 

Furthermore, new additions were 24% higher than the previous year, making 2023 the second-highest year in offshore wind history.

What’s the 2023 offshore wind growth like across different markets?

China led the world in annual offshore wind development for the sixth year in a row with 6.3 GW added in 2023, followed by Europe (3.8 GW). 

Outside of those two regions, three other markets commissioned new offshore wind capacity last year: Taiwan (China, 692 MW), Japan (140 MW) and South Korea (4.2 MW). 

That meant 41 GW and 34 GW of new offshore wind capacity was in operation in APAC and Europe, respectively, by the end of 2023. The two regions made up 99.9% of total global offshore wind installations last year. 

Outside of APAC and Europe, North America had 42 MW of offshore wind in operation at the end of 2023, with all installations located in the US.

What are the key takeaways from this year’s Offshore Report that readers should note?

1. GWEC’s rolling ten year outlook to 2033 shows that, with the right frameworks in place, the world will be on course to deploy 410 GW by 2033, bringing total capacity to 487 GW of offshore wind by the end of 2033. 
2. We are in an important moment in the history of offshore wind because the technology has proven itself as a maturing, competitive, globally diverse and scalable industry. Offshore wind provides large-scale, reliable power and can effectively displace conventional ‘baseload’ power, ensuring energy security, system resilience and independence at a national level.
3. The current era represents the start of a new era for offshore wind; emerging markets are making policy decisions and taking transformative action that provides the foundation to establish new markets in the offshore wind industry. Governments across Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Europe are embracing offshore wind as a solution to providing clean, affordable power to their people and industries, presenting a new wave of offshore wind to join the established markets in Europe, China and the US.

Is offshore wind a viable and attractive renewable energy technology for investment?

Yes, definitely. Despite the rise in commodity prices and interest rates due to short-term headwinds, offshore wind remains cost competitive in mature markets in comparison to other technologies like gas. 

It’s important to take the long view. With an increasing number of offshore wind targets globally, the sector is poised for long-term growth. The growing demand for offshore wind will effectively push down costs across the offshore wind value chain and lower the levelised cost of energy (LCOE). Based on the forecast by BloombergNEF, the global LCOE is expected to decrease by over 10% by 2025 and one-third by 2035. 

Read the report for an in-depth dive into LCOE forecasts and the challenges in financing offshore wind projects in developing economies.

KeyFacts Energy Industry Directory: GWEC