The European Union will unveil today a massive offshore wind construction committment, designed to take the bloc’s existing 12 gigawatt capacity to 300 gigawatts by 2050. The $940bn planned investment would push Europe to the top of the ranks in terms of installed offshore wind capacity with some of the money coming from the union’s planned post-Covid green recovery stimulus.
The UK, which has quit the EU, has made similarly bullish offshore wind projections recently, with prime minister Boris Johnson claiming last month that offshore wind farms will generate enough electricity to power every home in the UK within a decade.
Research published late last month by RenewableUK showed that the total pipeline of global offshore wind projects has grown by 47% since January – despite the pandemic – making the sector the fastest growing one across all energy segments.
The Offshore Wind Project Intelligence report published by the not for profit renewable energy trade association reveals that the total capacity of offshore wind projects worldwide which are operational, under construction, consented, in planning or in development currently stands at 197.4 gigawatts (GW), up from 134.7GW in mid-January. Just over half of the pipeline (50.5%) is in Europe (99.6GW).
The surging volume of new offshore wind projects have seen many famous names in shipping such as Scorpio, Swire and BW up their focus on the wind turbine installation vessel sector this year.
It is believed that the wind is this free energy that can be taken without any environmental consequences. Wind power plants of low power and individual ones really cannot have a harmful environmental effect.
Powerful and super-powerful wind farms are built on the paths of powerful constant wind flows. Such wind currents affect climate and precipitation along the path of their action on land. If these flows lose at least 30% of their power, then this will definitely affect the climate (microclimate) change along the further vector of these flows. Not everything is as harmless as it seems.