WindEurope CEO Giles Dickson has said that developing 10-20MW offshore wind turbines will be key to unleashing Europe’s offshore wind energy potential and will help the EU meet its Climate and Energy objectives. WindEurope’s central scenario projects 70GW of offshore wind energy in Europe’s energy mix by 2030, which would meet 9.7% of electricity consumption.
Dickson stated this on 21 February, as he addressed representatives from the European Commission at an event marking the conclusion of the INNWIND.EU project, which sought to develop the conceptual design of beyond-state-of-the-art 10-20 MW offshore wind turbines and hardware demonstrators of their critical components.
Giles Dickson urged the Commission to develop a robust research strategy for Europe going forward, stating that projects like INNWIND.EU will help solve Europe’s Energy and Climate challenges.
To unlock the offshore potential of 70GW by 2030, the wind energy sector must prioritise research and innovation on larger offshore wind turbines, Dickson said, explaining that this is largely because of the need for cost reduction in offshore wind. The industry has made significant strides towards lowering the LCOE in offshore wind – but the market will need to deliver 13MW to 15MW turbines to achieve the cost reductions necessary to unleash Europe’s offshore wind potential.
“We need to mobilise the European research capacity of universities and public research institutes to help industry develop competitive technology and keep our edge over China, the US and India,” Giles Dickson said.
During the five years of dedicated research, the INNWIND.EU project has developed several innovative rotor designs, drivetrain components and fixed and floating substructures that reduce the Levelised Cost of Energy (LCOE) of offshore wind turbines of between 10MW and 20MW capacity.