The global onshore wind O&M market will grow from US$ 8.34 billion in 2014 to US$ 13.43 billion by 2020, at a CAGR of 9.2 percent.
In addition, the global expenditure for wind turbine operations and maintenance will rise from US$ 9.25 billion in 2014 to US$ 17 billion by 2020, according to GlobalData.
The rise of global expenditure for wind turbine operations and maintenance (O&M) is driven by increasing numbers of installations and aging turbines.
Besides, the offshore wind O&M market value will increase at a rapid CAGR of 26 percent from US$ 0.91 billion in 2014 to US$ 3.57 billion by 2020, enhancing its share from 9.8 percent to 21 percent.
It is estimated that, offshore O&M is two to four times more expensive than onshore O&M.
Offshore wind power accounted for about 2.4 percent of the world’s cumulative wind power capacity in 2014.
However, it accounts only for approximately 10 percent of the global wind O&M market.
The O&M costs account for 10 to 15 percent of the total cost of power generation in an onshore wind farm and 25 percent in an offshore wind farm.
Offshore wind maintenance is expensive and requires special technicians to install components during maintenance.
The accessibility for O&M work can be affected by harsh weather conditions also.
While the onshore wind O&M market was valued at over nine times that of its offshore equivalent in 2014, the offshore segment is projected to expand at faster rate.
O&M has an important part to play in the cost-effectiveness of wind operations.
The wind energy industry has yet to improve, particularly in terms of collaboration, making better use of available technologies and adopting appropriate O&M strategies.
In last five years, a variety of new technology and software has come to market, but the ability to benchmark the performance of turbines is yet to be developed further.
Sabeena Wahid
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