Offshore Wind

The Challenge

Around a quarter of the world’s offshore wind potential is within the waters of low- and middle-income countries. Accelerating its uptake in emerging markets has become essential in their transition from fossil fuels.

The offshore wind industry has matured rapidly over the past decade. The accelerating growth of deployment —largely in countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and China, has resulted in costs falling by nearly 70 percent since 2012. Offshore wind can provide gigawatts (GW)-scale generation that is close to matching coastal demand with capacity factors exceeding 50 percent at cost-competitive prices.

Coupled with declining costs and advancing technologies, thousands of highly skilled jobs can be created and sustained by new offshore wind markets. This not only adds to the electricity mix, but also provides a valuable contribution to emerging economies in their transition to a decarbonized energy sector.

ESMAP's Response

The joint ESMAP-IFC Offshore Wind Development Program’s sole objective is to accelerate the uptake of offshore wind in emerging markets. It supports the inclusion of offshore wind into the energy sector policies and strategies of World Bank Group client countries. How we deliver support is illustrated in the graph to the left through three groups of activities.

Analysis by the program estimates there is over 71,000 GW of technically extractable* offshore wind resources globally, with more than 70 percent of that in deeper waters suited to floating offshore wind turbines. Around a quarter of the world’s technical resource is within the waters of low- and middle-income countries. These emerging markets are the focus of this program, and currently seven country governments are being supported —Azerbaijan, Colombia, India, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Turkey, and Vietnam. Many other emerging market countries have technical and economic conditions favorable to offshore wind development and the program is ready to provide support.