Offshore Wind Technology and Status - Structural Integrity of Offshore Wind Turbines - page 26

Others, 6 MW

Belgium, 30 MW

Denmark, 664 MW

United Kingdom,
868 MW

Finland, 30 MW
Germany, 72 MW
Ireland, 25 MW

Netherlands, 246.8 MW

Sweden, 163 MW

FIGURE 2-9 Installed offshore wind capacity by country, January 2010.
(S OURCE : Musial and Ram 2010, Section 2, 10-22.)

Figure 2-9 shows the installed capacity of offshore wind by country
and indicates that the United Kingdom leads in total installed capac-
ity, followed closely by Denmark. However, projections indicate that
Germany will overtake both the United Kingdom and Denmark and
become the leader in deployments. Although Europe has been the leader
in offshore wind so far, several other countries have begun looking
toward offshore wind to meet their energy needs, including Canada,
China, and the United States.
Figure 2-10 juxtaposes installed offshore projects against proposed
North American projects (reNews 2009; Daily 2008; Wired Magazine 2007;
Sokolic 2008; Williams 2008; Garden State Wind 2010; AWS Truewind
2010). The installed projects are represented by blue or dark bubbles and
plotted to show average water depth and average distance from shore. The
size of each bubble is approximately proportional to the size of the proj-
ect. The red or gray bubbles show the proposed United States projects,
which are mostly in the Atlantic or the Great Lakes. Most installed proj-
ects are located close to shore and in water less than 30 m in depth. How-
ever, the proposed projects in the United States tend to be larger and will