The World Bank's top 11 new market tips for offshore wind, from Azerbaijan to Vietnam
Global financing group identified 16TW of untapped potential in developing countries
As the World Bank releases a report on how to unleash the offshore wind potential of developing countries, two of its lead authors have revealed to Recharge the 11 markets they are tipping for success.
The World Bank’s Offshore Wind Development Program has in its recent report – covered in detail by Recharge here – called on donor countries to provide a $15.6bn package of concessional financing and grants to help get offshore wind off the ground in emerging markets.
Initial analysis by the program identified an offshore wind technical potential of over 16TW across 75 emerging market countries.
The programme has supported governments in 20 of those countries in assessing their offshore wind assets, preparing roadmap reports on how to unlock this potential and providing technical and regulatory analysis on their behalf.
Two of the co-leads of that program, Sean Whittaker and Mark Leybourne, have identified 11 countries in particular – listed below in alphabetical order – that are looking particularly promising.
- Azerbaijan: A roadmap has been published for the country revealing an offshore wind resource of around 157GW. Agreements and memorandums of understanding have meanwhile already been signed between its government and two developers.
- Brazil: A roadmap study is still underway for the country, but its energy planning authority previously identified a whopping 700GW of potential, with the government eyeing 16GW of offshore wind by 2050. Brazilian state oil and gas group Petrobras recently unveiled plans for 23GW of offshore wind in the country, while Franco-Portuguese giant Ocean Winds is looking at 5GW in Rio de Janeiro.
- Colombia: A roadmap has been published and the government is working on its first seabed allocation competition. The World Bank is also supporting a range of follow-on technical and regulatory analysis.
- Dominican Republic: The World Bank is again supporting technical and regulatory analysis for the Caribbean nation, having previously identified 63GW of offshore wind potential.
- India: A World Bank roadmap is underway and the country, which, despite several false dawns for offshore wind previously, has set a target of installing 30GW by 2030. Its first seabed allocation competition is planned in December.
- The Philippines: A roadmap published last year identified 21GW of offshore wind assets, with the potential for the country to get a fifth of its power from offshore wind by 2040. Many service contracts have been awarded, with Spain’s BlueFloat Energy recently unveiling plans for up to 7.6GW of floating wind. The World Bank is undertaking follow-on work.
- Romania: Boasts 76GW of offshore wind assets according to the World Bank, which is still working on a roadmap for the country. Its government is targeting 3GW of offshore wind by 2035.
- South Africa: A roadmap remains underway but the World Bank previously identified 901GW of offshore wind potential for Africa’s third-largest economy.
- Sri Lanka: A roadmap published last month for the crisis-stricken country found it could tap 56GW of offshore wind potential to alleviate its energy woes. The World Bank is now providing follow-on technical and regulatory analysis.
- Turkey: A roadmap remains underway but the country has an estimated 75GW of offshore wind potential. It recently announced an offshore wind target of 5GW by 2035. The World Bank is supporting a large grant to identify sites, including wind and seabed surveys.
- Vietnam: A 2021 roadmap found that Vietnam could have almost 25GW of offshore wind supplying 12% of its power needs by 2035. It has set a target for 6GW of offshore wind by 2030. The World Bank is now helping it plan a regulatory framework.
While not on the list, the World Bank is also advising Ukraine on the potential role that offshore wind could play in the country’s post-war power sector reconstruction.
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