How new is floating offshore wind energy technology?

Floating offshore wind energy technology is relatively new, with the first commercial floating offshore wind project in the world becoming operational off the coast of Scotland in 2017 (1). As of 2024, there are still very few floating commercial-scale wind farms in operation — two off of Scotland (2), one off of Portugal (3), one in Norway (4), one in China (5), and one in France (6). Other countries currently permitting and investigating floating offshore wind projects include Japan, South Korea, Spain, Italy, Greece, and Sweden.

​The world's second full-scale floating wind turbine, the 2 MW WindFloat, about 5 km offshore of Aguçadoura, Portugal.

Source: Untrakdrover via Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0) (7)

Floating offshore platforms in the ocean are not an entirely new technology. The offshore oil and gas industry has been using floating platforms since 1977 (8), and there are currently more than 270 (9) floating offshore oil platforms around the world. That being said, building and implementing floating offshore wind turbines off the coast of California would require the development of new technology, including dynamic export transmission cables that can bend and sway more underwater than traditional export cables.

California is not the only U.S. state where floating offshore wind is being developed, with projects currently at some stage of development in Oregon (10) and Maine (11), as well. Maine recently received a lease from BOEM to develop a demonstration floating offshore wind project called the Maine Research Array (12). The 144-megawatt (MW) project would consist of 10 turbines located in federal waters off the coast of Maine.

References​

1. The Engineer. (2017, October 18). World's first floating wind farm delivers electricity to grid. www.theengineer.co.uk/content/news/worlds-first-floating-wind-farm-delivers-electricity-to-grid

2. Offshore Wind Scotland. (2024). www.offshorewindscotland.org.uk

3. Wind Europe. (2024, January 17). Wind energy offers many benefits to Portugal. Its potential is even greater. https://windeurope.org/newsroom/news/wind-energy-offers-many-benefits-to-portugal-its-potential-is-even-greater/ 

4. Equinor. (2024.) Hywind Tampen. www.equinor.com/energy/hywind-tampen 

5. Whitlock, R. (2023, November 3). World’s first deep-sea floating wind energy project integrated with marine ranching completed in China. Renewable Energy Magazine. www.renewableenergymagazine.com/wind/world-s-first-deepsea-floating-wind-energy-20231103 

6. Memija, A. (2025, June 5). First Floating Offshore Wind Farm in France fully commissioned. Offshore Wind. https://www.offshorewind.biz/2025/06/05/first-floating-offshore-wind-farm-in-france-fully-commissioned/?utm_placeholder_value=&cdmwt=AQEIBAAMkDAAxCkDgwmUoQRYOzSqnaB4hPsHDg

7. Untrakdrover. (2012, November 26). A semi-submersible type floating offshore wind turbine foundation called the WindFloat operating at rated capacity (2MW) approximately 5km offshore of Agucadoura, Portugal [Image]. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floating_wind_turbine#/media/File:Agucadoura_WindFloat_Prototype.jpg 

8. Offshore Technology. (2008, August 28). The Dominance of FPSO. www.offshore-technology.com/features/feature40937/?cf-view 

9. Fluenta. (2019, March 18). FPSOs: Mobile Processing. Wayback Machine. https://web.archive.org/web/20210511200625/https://www.fluenta.com/fpsos-mobile-processing/ 

10. U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. (2024). Oregon Activities. www.boem.gov/renewable-energy/state-activities/Oregon 

11. Maine Offshore Wind Initiative. (n.d.). www.maineoffshorewind.org 

12. Maine Research Array. (2024). www.maineresearcharray.com