The properties of the global offshore wind turbine fleet

Abstract

Offshore wind capacity increased massively in recent years. Sufficient wind potential must be available to realize the ambitious goals regarding further wind capacity expansion. Thus, the goal of this study is to quantify the meteorological, geographical, and technical properties of the current global offshore wind turbine fleet. The offshore wind turbine fleet is classified by twelve factors that belong to meteorological, geographical, and technical factor categories. A comprehensive wind turbine site dataset is evaluated, including 5473 sites in Europe and 3404 in Asia. The factors at the wind turbine sites are derived using publicly available datasets, including a reanalysis wind speed dataset, geodata, and technical properties. The results of this study are that the global median (1) wind speed is 8.7 m/s, (2) water depth is 17 m and (3) distance to shore is 27 km. The distance to the nearest wind turbine is 5.1 times the rotor diameter. The factors studied have a high regional variability. While Asian offshore wind turbines operate in shallower water closer to the shores than European, European wind turbine sites provide higher wind resources. The regional differences indicate that the wind potential and wind turbine siting criteria differ depending on the country. The factor values obtained are reference values for future offshore wind resource assessments and estimates of the wind potential from a regional to global scale.