The potential in offshore wind power might be underestimated!

The American thinktank IEEFA writes that the ambitions and potential of Asian countries in offshore wind power might be underestimated in market forecasts from for instance Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

The background is that the cost for offshore wind power has fallen dramatically over the years. Bigger turbines and economies of scale in supply chains have contributed so that offshore wind farms are now being built in Europe without any subsidies. This is progress that Asian countries now can capitalize on, says IEEFA.

And ambitions are not lacking. Together, countries such as China, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines and India have ambitions to build 100 GW of offshore wind power by 2030. If they were to reach just 70 percent of that, it could replace electricity from 300-350 million tonne of coal each year, according to IEEFA. That is the equivalent of the 35-40 percent of the annual seaborne trade in coal.

The industry is still in its infancy in Asia and a lot of work remains for the authorities to nurture it. But in offshore wind power they have a new valuable resource to make the most of, according to IEEFA.

Read article in IEEFA:

http://ieefa.org/offshore-wind-power-the-underexplored-opportunity-to-replace-coal-in-asia/