How new is floating offshore wind energy technology?

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 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, China, Norway, the U.K., Portugal, France, Japan, and Spain are generating a combined 278 MW of electricity using floating offshore wind infrastructure (17).

Floating offshore platforms in the ocean are not a 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.

A lease is also active for Atlas Wind, a 2 GW floating offshore wind farm off the central coast of California (15), and in 2024, Maine received a lease from BOEM, now the Marine Minerals Administration (MMA) (14), to develop a demonstration floating offshore wind project called the Maine Research Array (12), a 144-megawatt (MW) project consisting of 10 turbines located in federal waters off the coast of Maine. Click here to view recent offshore wind lease updates from Harvard’s Environmental and Energy Law Program (16).

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

13. McDermott, Jennifer. 2026. AP News. Trump has hindered offshore wind while China and others invest heavily. https://apnews.com/article/offshore-wind-energy-climate-trump-b8be5561c56d8932ef97fcbec9062fe1?utm_campaign=Newsletter&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_cP7WWlArHetSZO49aUtC33Lv-gLdMSLtJ8naY4e1LzSON9ewz73GIJYu5Ytg4uPb20XYU-3S5xrBO5vxNXt2z5fmRPA&_hsmi=418948755&utm_content=418948755&utm_source=hs_email 

14. U.S. Department of the Interior. (2026). Department of the Interior Begins Transition to Marine Minerals Administration. https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/department-interior-begins-transition-marine-minerals-administration

15. Equinor. (2026). Atlas Wind. https://atlaswind.com/

16. Harvard Law School. (2026). Environmental and Energy Law Program. https://eelp.law.harvard.edu/tracker/federal-offshore-wind-deployment/

17. Windtech International. (2025). Global offshore wind capacity reaches 83 GW despite short-term challenges. https://www.windtech-international.com/industry-news/global-offshore-wind-capacity-reaches-83-gw-despite-short-term-challenges