MARINEWIND was a three-year project co-funded by Innovate UK and the European Union to accelerate the commercialisation of floating offshore wind turbines.

As part of a six-country European consortium (involving partners across the UK, Belgium, Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Greece), Energy Systems Catapult led work on technological, market and system level barriers to floating offshore wind. We also looked at what needs to change in policy, regulation and market design to make deployment possible. The project delivered 32 high-level recommendations to advance the sustainable development and market uptake of floating offshore wind turbines, including:

• Accelerate grid upgrades for floating wind.
• Foster the development of a European supply and value chain.
• Raise public awareness about offshore wind benefits.
• Reform policy and markets to accelerate floating offshore wind deployment.
• Introduce innovative financing mechanisms for floating wind.

Seizing these recommendations could unlock significant opportunities for innovation and scale-up:

• 234 GW: the size of the global offshore wind project pipeline, with around 160 GW planned in Europe alone.
• Floating wind could unlock around 80% of global offshore wind resources located in deep waters.

The challenge

Floating offshore wind represents an opportunity to tap into wind resources not used at present but required to meet European Commission and UK energy and climate commitments. However, the technology is nascent, expensive and faces social acceptance and regulatory hurdles. Grid bottlenecks, complex policy frameworks and high capital costs are preventing the construction and integration of floating wind projects. These issues put renewable energy targets at risk and erode investor confidence.

The project’s success is crucial to advancing Europe’s leadership in offshore wind innovation.

The solution

MARINEWIND adopted a ‘quintuple-helix’ approach to address these challenges bringing together industry, academia, public authorities, civil society, and green innovation stakeholders to ensure a collaborative and inclusive approach. We held 15 co-creation workshops and engaged over 650 stakeholders.

Partners in the project included APRE, CNR Institute of Marine Engineering, Ricerca Sul Sistema Energetico, Sener, WavEC​, Q-Plan, europeche, University of York and Element Energy.

Raising awareness and removing barriers – across policy, regulation, social attitudes, the environment, markets and technology – was central to the project. In the UK, this included early engagement with communities and marine users.

The impact

MARINEWIND has identified the following recommendations that will help the UK accelerate its use of floating offshore wind technology:

• Upgrade grid connections to facilitate the efficient connection of new generation capacity.
• Create a stable regulatory and financial environment to support the growth of floating offshore wind.
• Develop investment programmes for the upgrade of port and grid infrastructure for floating offshore wind deployment.
• Adopt innovative and diversified funding mechanisms to enhance project financial viability.
• Implement an integrated strategy and tailored financing mechanisms to modernise ports, upgrade infrastructure and improve supply chain efficiency.

Acting on these recommendations should reduce project timelines, increase investor confidence and position Europe as a global leader in floating offshore wind technology.

The project’s legacy includes a robust framework for future projects, ongoing stakeholder collaboration and a clear pathway to achieving renewable energy targets.

To read all the reports and analysis resulting from the project, visit the MARINEWIND website.

What’s next?

MARINEWIND has set the stage for the future of floating offshore wind projects.

To learn more and discuss opportunities to work with us, email: info@es.catapult.org.uk