Current status and future trends of offshore wind power in Europe

A considerable growth of large-scale offshore wind farms (OWF) is noticeable in Europe mainly due to advances in wind turbines and foundation structures, which have improved their economic conditions and contributed to the implementation of offshore plants. It is expected that the installed capacity will continue to increase, since the European Union aims at reaching about 100 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030. OWF have many challenges in terms of cost reduction and technology. Due to these issues, it is important to have a comprehensive understanding of the current situation and the future trends of OWF. This paper analyses the current status and the trends of large-scale OWF with an installed capacity above 150 MW in Europe. The results show the trends on wind turbine size and capacity, turbine model, distance to shore, water depth, investment cost, type of foundation, transmission technology, and voltage array systems among others. This paper gathers the latest information about the topic, deducing future trends from the evaluation of OWF fully commissioned, authorized or under construction. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.