South west coasts hold one of the best floating wind resources in UK

A recent report produced by the Offshore Valuation Group, an informal collaboration of government and industrial organisation, concludes that by 2050, the UK could have an installed capacity of offshore wind, wave and tidal energy of 406 GW and be a net exporter of energy.

The report estimated the practical resource for fixed and floating offshore wind, wave energy, tidal stream and range energy. Three scenarios were used to evaluate the value of the offshore industry to the UK in terms of capital expenditure required and the potential revenues. The first scenario considered a resource utilisation of 13 per cent, scenario two at 29 per cent and scenario three at 76 per cent. Although ambitious, the scenarios demonstrate that the offshore industry can be just as valuable as the oil and gas industry is today.

In terms of the south west, the best resources are wave energy, and floating wind in deep water sites a long way offshore. The largest single resource of floating wind in the future will be around Cornwall and south west of the Severn Estuary.

Instead of using pile driven or tripod foundations, floating wind turbines are secured to the seabed using mooring lines. Currently there is only one full scale floating turbine in operation in the North Sea, but in the future this technology could help to access resources that are currently too deep for conventional offshore wind turbines.