Offshore Renewables

There is huge potential to generate renewable energy offshore using ocean energies, offshore wind and floating photovoltaics. Various dedicated innovative solutions can accelerate their deployment.

It may also interest you:

The case for Offshore Renewables

To transform the energy sector, a shift towards renewable energy sources is required. The world’s oceans are a source of abundant renewable energy, which can be tapped by offshore renewables – including offshore wind (with fixed and floating foundations), floating solar photovoltaics (PV) and various forms of emerging ocean energy technologies – to decarbonise the energy sector. The benefits of offshore renewables go beyond the energy sector, as the energy harnessed from oceans has the potential to drive a vigorous global blue economy for a variety of end-use applications, including shipping, cooling, aquaculture and water desalination, among others. Offshore renewables are expected to provide significant socio-economic benefits and to improve the livelihoods of islands, and especially small island developing states (SIDS) and least developed countries (LDCs) through job creation, local value chains and enhanced synergies among the different blue economy actors.

Offshore Renewables Toolkit

IRENA has developed a toolkit to serve as a repository of the key findings, messages and solutions from IRENA's broad analysis on offshore renewables (i.e. offshore wind, ocean energy; and floating PV), and measures which can enable the acceleration of their deployment. This toolkit provides an overview of key considerations and proposed actions which, taken together, can help to ensure offshore renewables become more prominent as the energy transition unfolds globally. This toolkit has been prepared under the auspices of the Innovation to Foster the Renewable Energy Transition (IFRET) project funded by the European Commission.

Access the toolkit

IRENA Countries Offshore Renewables Active Library (CORAL)

To complement the Offshore Renewables Toolkit, IRENA has developed a platform where Members of IRENA’s Collaborative Framework for Offshore Renewables (CFOR) can share documents (legislation, factsheets, reports, etc.) and insights. These documents are collated to inform interested stakeholders on the policy and regulatory frameworks already developed to support offshore renewables development in respective national contexts. This dashboard aims to facilitate the transfer of knowledge and the sharing of best practices between countries and CFOR members. This dashboard will be updated frequently.