Title page 1

Contents 3

SUMMARY 2

1. INTRODUCTION 5

2. THE IMPACT OF WIND CLASS ON OFFSHORE WIND TECHNOLOGY, COSTS AND PROJECT ECONOMICS 8

2.1. WIND CLASSES 8

2.2. HOW WIND CLASSES DETERMINE THE POWER OF WIND AND TECHNICAL OFFSHORE WIND POTENTIAL 11

2.3. TECHNOLOGICAL SOLUTIONS FOR CLASS II/III AND THEIR COST IMPLICATIONS 12

2.4. HOW WIND CLASS AFFECTS THE ECONOMICS OF OFFSHORE WIND PROJECTS 15

3. OFFSHORE WIND SYSTEMS - BOTTOM-FIXED AND FLOATING - ACROSS WIND CLASSES 19

3.1 BOTTOM-FIXED OFFSHORE WIND SYSTEMS 19

3.2. FLOATING OFFSHORE WIND SYSTEMS 23

4. OFFSHORE WIND DEPLOYMENT ACROSS WIND CLASSES - A GLOBAL OVERVIEW 29

4.1. TRENDS IN OFFSHORE WIND DEPLOYMENT ACROSS WIND CLASSES 29

4.2. CLASS I OFFSHORE WIND DEPLOYMENT: KEY MARKETS AND TRENDS 33

4.3. CLASS II/III OFFSHORE WIND DEPLOYMENT: KEY MARKETS AND TRENDS 35

4.4. FLOATING OFFSHORE WIND MANUFACTURERS 37

5. CONCLUSIONS: ACTION POINTS FOR THE 2024-2029 POLITICAL CYCLE 38

ANNEX. METHODOLOGY 41

REFERENCES 42

Tables 4

Table 1. IEC wind class categorisation based on annual mean wind speeds (m/s) 9

Table 2. Technological options for increasing power production of Class II/III offshore wind turbines - technology readiness level 15

Table 3. Technology readiness level of bottom-fixed and floating offshore systems across wind classes 28

Figures 4

Figure 1. Europe's offshore wind resource - annual mean wind speeds (m/s) at 100 m above sea-level 10

Figure 2. Installed capacity of offshore wind energy (MW) - global and leading markets (deployed capacities to 2024 and capacity projections to 2033) 20

Figure 3. Location and capacity of operating bottom-fixed offshore wind farms in Europe 21

Figure 4. Installed capacity of floating offshore systems in leading markets (deployed capacities to 2024 and projections to 2033) 24

Figure 5. Location and capacities of floating offshore wind farms in operation and construction stages 25

Figure 6. Designs for floating offshore wind platforms 26

Figure 7. Global number of offshore wind farms by wind class (operating, under construction and planned) 30

Figure 8. Offshore wind farms (operating, under construction, and in pre-construction stages) by nominal capacities (MW) across their associated wind classes 31

Figure 9. Offshore wind farms (operating and under construction) across countries by wind class and associated nominal capacities (MW) 32

Figure 10. Regional distribution of operating wind farms across wind classes 33

Figure 11. Number of offshore wind farms (operating, under construction, and in pre-construction) in Europe by associated wind class 34

Figure 12. Number of Chinese offshore wind farms (operating, under construction, and in pre-construction stages) by associated wind class 35

Figure 13. Proportion of offshore wind farms (operating, under construction, and pre-constructionstages) by wind class and country 36