[The Vector] Global Offshore Wind Sector Expanding Rapidly
The global offshore wind turbine market is expected to almost double this year after record growth last year, according to a report published in October by Danish consulting company MAKE. MAKE predicts the expansion will continue into 2015.
The decade-long struggle to approve and construct Cape Wind, the United States’ first offshore wind farm, looks to be reaching a successful conclusion. At the end of November, the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities approved a 15-year power purchase agreement for National Grid to purchase Cape Wind’s power and RECs. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar has promised to fast-track future offshore wind projects in the same way that he has fast-tracked solar energy projects on public lands.
But just as the US makes small beginnings in offshore wind development, onshore developments seem to have fallen off a cliff. SNL Energy estimates that the power generation capacity of onshore wind energy projects in the first three quarters of 2010 was 64% down on the capacity that came online in the first three quarters of 2009.