COLUMNS||Ian Peter Thomson Brun 36 COLUMNS
Offshore wind has developed remarkably over the last 10 years from less than 1GW installed capacity in 2006 to more than 19 GW in 2017. The technology for offshore wind has also developed rapidly coming from a 2MW platform in the early commercial wind farms back in 2002 to the very latest turbines of 9.5MW, which have just been fully certified for commercial offering. This development also means a significant expansion of size in the rotor diameters of turbines from 80 metres to more than 164 metres today, set to increase further to an amazing 220 metres in diameter. This rapid technological development of offshore wind turbines in recent years – exemplified by the deployment of commercial wind turbines over 8MW during the last two to three years – has had an enormous effect on the industry, increasing the operational efficiency and therefore lowering the cost of wind power. Coupled with this technology development the industry has also seen advances in more lean manufacturing processes, global sourcing of components and thus economics of scale and industrialisation in the wind industry. The positive effects of all this has been a rapid learning curve development and aggressive cost-out, leading to significantly lower costs of energy for wind power. Today, onshore wind generation is regarded as the