Energy and Climate Change, Chapter 8: Wind energy: status and outlook with focus on offshore wind

This chapter provides a historical perspective on wind energy utilization, demonstrating that wind turbines are among the oldest, largest, and most sophisticated machines. It also highlights the potential of offshore wind energy to offer new solutions for meeting the clean energy demands of a growing global population, enhancing national energy security through technologies like green hydrogen production and storage, and improving the resilience of nuclear power plants in seismic areas through supply complementarity. Additionally, the offshore wind industry can set a benchmark for future industries, creating insights into green economics and generating jobs and factories for the future. We show that environmentally friendly regulations are further driving innovations to enhance the sustainability of OWFs. Examples include material recycling, landfill bans on blade disposal, and eco-friendly, low-noise offshore construction methods to protect biodiversity.