Offshore wind power: from fixed to floating

¹ INNOSEA (ABL Group), 11 rue Arthur III, 44200 Nantes
² Laboratoire de Recherche en Hydrodynamique, Énergétique et Environnement Atmosphérique (École Centrale Nantes, Nantes University and CNRS). LHEEA, 1 rue de la Noë, 44321 Nantes Cedex 3

^* jeanchnstophe.gilloteaux@innosea.fr
^** sandrine.aubrun@ec-nantes.fr

Abstract

Wind power is expected to make the biggest contribution to renewable energy deployment targets for 2030 and beyond. Installed wind power capacity in the European Union is around 236 GW (end 2021); with 207 GW of onshore wind and 28 GW of offshore wind, it covers 15% of electricity demand (8% in France). The most promising scenarios aim to achieve a total capacity of 60 to 80 GW of installed offshore wind power by 2030, including 6 to 12 GW of floating offshore wind power.

This article provides some background on offshore wind energy. The advantages of floating wind power, the associated obstacles and innovative hybrid experimentation systems are briefly outlined.