Cost of offshore wind power in UK has dropped 32 percent in four years

Offshore wind turbines in the Irish Sea, in calm weather (credit: Photograph by Andy Dingley/Wikimedia Commons)

The cost of offshore wind power in Britain has fallen to £97 ($121) per MWh. According to an industry report (PDF), this represents a 32 percent drop from £142 ($178) four years ago.

The Offshore Wind Programme Board (OWPB), a part of The Crown Estate, which manages the UK seabed, released its report on Tuesday. The report noted that cost reductions had come primarily through the development of advanced technology and the adoption of larger turbines, as well as increased competition and, to a lesser extent, decreased cost of capital. “7MW and 8MW turbines have become standard for new projects,” the report stated. That’s consistent with a paper published two months ago in Nature Energy showing that the cost of wind power could be reduced by 24 to 30 percent by 2030 due to the installation of bigger turbines.

The new numbers mean that offshore wind energy has reached a government target—beneath £100 per MWh by 2020—four years earlier than was expected.