Since the invasion of Ukraine, surging energy prices have drawn eyes to the upscaling of renewables. Of central interest has been wind- the U.K’s primary source of renewable energy. Last week, the backbencher group Conservative Environment Network [CEN] called for Kwasi Kwarteng to seize “the massive opportunity” presented by floating offshore wind turbines. They want the Energy, Industry and Business (EIB) Department to raise their capacity targets for the technology by a factor of fifteen, to 15 GW.
The special interest in floating offshore wind farms suits the mood within the field. While the idea was born in 1972, it wasn’t until Equinor’s Hywind Scotland that the first floating wind farm became operational. Now, markets seem to favour the technology: in January, a monumental 25-GW of offshore wind leasing capacity was auctioned to companies; half of this capacity is expected to be provided by floating wind farms.
The question beckons: why the hype?
Well, the primary issue with wind farms is their intermittency. This lives at the forefront of shareholder and policymakers’ minds: the final quarter of 2021 witnessed a 30% downfall in wind generation due to lower wind speeds. That’s money lost for companies and the U.K. government, who needed to import record levels of electricity to meet demand last year. Conveniently, the primary benefit of floating wind farms are that they can be situated further out at sea, where wind speeds are more stable.
However, there are risks to vesting such hopes in a new technology. There are only three operational floating wind farms in existence currently. Upscaling them rapidly could throw up a plethora of problems, ranging from supply chain shortages to functional issues in different wind speeds and water currents. Furthermore, a letter to FT signed by Cambridge Professor Michael Kelly and University of Edinburgh Professor Gordon Hughes suggests that their value is overstated. That analyses of the existing farms’ financial accounts reveal them to be “the most costly way to generate electricity deployed in the UK to date.”
The EIB department have earmarked £60mn to support the floating offshore wind sector. This is important. However, analysis like that above is also important to ensure that money is distributed aptly during our energy transition. This is fundamental to reaching Net Zero by 2050.
