Abstract
The objective of this report, as part of the NEEDS project, is to provide data on costs and life cycle inventories for offshore wind energy technology. The focus is the present and long-term technological development of the offshore wind energy technology.
The first part of the report deals with the historical, technological background development as well as environmental problems related to the offshore wind technology.
The second part deals with future technological developments. This section discusses the technological and non-technological barriers and drivers. On the basis of these barriers and drivers three road maps are drawn based on a pessimistic, an optimistic realistic and a very optimistic scenario for the future offshore wind energy technology. The road maps describe in detail how the technologies of offshore wind could develop and how costs could develop in respect to projections of installed capacity and experience curves.
For example in the very optimistic scenario it is projected that offshore wind turbines will have an effect of 15-20 MW in 2025 and will be erected on concrete towers. Based on different scenarios for the global development in capacity, investment costs will have fallen from the present level of 1.8 million euro per MW to between 0.8 million and 1 million euro per MW.
Life cycle inventories for the present and future offshore wind energy technologies are described and analysed in the last section of the report.