Offshore Wind Worldwide 2022 edition - Flipbook - Page 4
4
Hogan Lovells
Foreword
Not one day goes by without encouraging
results and perspectives on the offshore wind
front. From record installations in China to
market-changing floating wind tender
results in Scotland, from additional offshore
wind volumes across the EU to new and firm
commitments in the US, from maturing
markets expecting ever more offshore wind
to emerging markets wanting new offshore
wind, everyone everywhere flocks offshore,
bringing tremendous value creation
opportunities across the supply chain in tow.
Such positive market dynamics do come with
their lot of uncertainties too. It is particularly
tough to properly dimension a specific
market’s potential when sudden events such
as ScotWind’s lease option results
dramatically transform the global floating
wind market from one day to the other.
There will always be a before and after
January 17th 2022 in our industry. What few
of us had worked towards and hoped for for
many years has suddenly become a new
reality for many. France will without a doubt
have to seriously reconsider the share of
(floating) offshore wind in its 5-year PPE
(pluriannual energy planning) whilst Japan,
once pioneer and leader in floating wind,
will have to come to terms that it is time to
speed up and commit to sizeable annual
tenders before other emerging markets such
as South Korea, Taiwan and even Australia
become Asia’s floating wind champions.
Uncertainties do not only come in terms of
market locations and market sizes;
uncertainties also appear in the form of
supply-chain readiness to deliver projects by
the end of this decade in quantities no one
would have dared to dream of a few years
ago. Beyond the obvious (installation vessel
availability, offshore turbine sizing, harbor
infrastructure, etc.) supply-chain readiness
is not complete without a thorough
understanding and mastering of “softer”
issues such as country and/or projectspecific interfaces and risk transfer
management between key stakeholders,
regulatory constraints, environmental and
land issues. Bottomline, as the market is
becoming global and is fast accelerating, as
laws and standards are changing and
adapting to new constraints, offshore wind
abounds of challenges and ultimately
tremendous opportunities worldwide.