The global offshore wind industry installed a total of 10.8 GW of new capacity in 2023, its second-highest year of installations.
This sets the stage for what the Global Wind Energy Council predicts could be a record-breaking decade.
The new figures pinned total 2023 offshore wind capacity installations at 10.8GW, up 24% on the previous year and bringing the total global offshore fleet to 75.2GW.
And analysts expect that this sort of growth rate will continue through the remainder of the decade, though only if the present increase in policy momentum continues.
Over the next ten years, GWEC expects 410GW of new offshore wind to be installed, with two-thirds installed between 2029 and 2033.
But it says this depends on collaboration between industry and government and streamlined and effective policy and regulations.
Continued expansion of the global offshore wind energy industry will be driven in part by new arrivals on the scene, including countries like Australia, Japan, South Korea, and the Philippines.
In each of these countries, policy developments are being matched by what GWEC describes as “unprecedented focus across governments, industry, and civil society” to set up long-term offshore wind at scale.
In Australia, the federal government this year granted the first set of licenses for six projects off the coast of Victoria, and announced its intention to grant a further six licenses to projects in the region.
If all 12 projects are built, 25GW worth of offshore wind would be brought online.