Perspectives and Challenges Related Offshore Wind Turbines in Deep Water.

If floating wind turbines and water depths down to 1000 m are included, estimates of the global technical potential for offshore wind energy has been given as 330,000 TWh/year (330,000 TWh/year corresponds to an installed capacity of 75,343 GW at a capacity factor of 0.5) of which 230,000 TWh/year is in water depths greater than 60m [[5]]. In a special report on offshore wind energy [[2]] it is implied that offshore wind energy may become the largest contributor to the European electricity system by 2040. The maintenance of offshore wind turbines also introduces uncertainty related to accessibility or "weather windows", i.e., situations where wind and wave conditions make it possible to access the turbine for a sufficiently long time to complete the required work. In the coming decades, energy from offshore wind turbines is expected to be an important energy source in electric power systems. [Extracted from the article]