Lessons from the northern hemisphere: What the UK did to accelerate offshore wind development

Insights from the UK: How strategic action powered offshore wind success

From the first turbine installation in December 2000 to becoming a global leader, the UK offshore wind industry has experienced explosive growth.

Today, it boasts the world’s second largest market, supplying around 20 percent of global offshore wind capacity. With around 50 projects at various development stages and a current pipeline of nearly 95 gigawatts (GW), offshore wind is now a cornerstone of the UK’s energy strategy. 

New Zealand shares key natural advantages with the UK – vast coastlines and high wind energy potential, yet the industry is in its infancy. So, what made the UK so successful? 

Five critical factors helped unlock its offshore wind potential—offering valuable lessons for emerging markets looking to follow suit. Here’s a closer look at the key drivers behind the UK’s rapid growth, and what they could mean for countries like New Zealand.

Strong government policy and clear targets

The UK’s rapid growth in offshore wind was driven by the need to provide long-term carbon reduction solutions. Government commitments, such as signing the Paris Agreement (2016) and enshrining net-zero emissions by 2050 in the Climate Change Act 2008, provided a policy framework that supported offshore wind expansion. To reinforce this commitment, the UK set ambitious targets, including 50 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030, sending a strong signal to investors and ensuring policy certainty for the industry.

Electricity market reform: certainty for investors

Legislative support for renewable energy paved the way for electricity market reform, offering revenue certainty for low carbon energy generation. A game-changer was the introduction of  Contracts for Difference (CfD), under the Energy Act (2013).

CfDs guarantee a fixed price for electricity, with the government bridging the difference between the fixed price and fluctuating market prices. This mechanism protects developers by reducing exposure to wholesale price volatility while shielding consumers from high costs when electricity prices spike – making offshore wind projects more financially viable. 

Planning reform: streamlining approvals

Large infrastructure projects often face a complex consent process, leading to long and uncertain approval timelines that can cause significant development delays. The UK tackled this issue by introducing a dedicated framework for ‘Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs)’ across England and Wales under the Planning Act (2008), a reform that benefited the offshore wind market.

This step change in the consent process significantly accelerated planning approvals and project delivery through the introduction of ‘Development Consent Orders (DCOs)’. Under the Planning Act, offshore wind farms are granted consent via a single DCO with pre-determined timeframes, combining what were previously separate approval processes. 

This more efficient approach eliminates the need to obtain permissions from multiple authorities, enabling faster-decision making, reducing project risk, and encouraging early investments in the supply chain. 

Building on experience: managing cumulative effects

Over the past decade, the UK industry has built on lessons from earlier leasing rounds, strategically developing solutions to both known and emerging challenges. This approach has supported continued growth while improving outcomes for nature. One key challenge is the cumulative impact of existing, planned, or approved developments, which can interact with new projects and amplify environmental effects. 

To address this, staged assessment approaches have been developed, assigning levels of certainty to other existing or approved developments through tiering, helping to support successful consent applications. More recently, assessment frameworks have been introduced to ensure consistent and transparent evaluation of cumulative effects on sensitive receptors, such as offshore seabirds and marine mammals. 

Innovative compensatory measures have also emerged to help offset these cumulative effects, supported by multi-disciplinary research. A notable example is the Hornsea 3 artificial nesting structures, designed to support vulnerable seabird species. 

Collaboration: accelerating industry growth

A coordinated, cross-sector approach has been crucial to the UK’s success. Strategic collaboration between statutory advisors, environmental impact assessment practitioners, and design engineers has accelerated knowledge and data sharing, and technological advancements – both fundamental to the growth of emerging industries. 

A range of initiatives support this, including industry groups such as the Offshore Wind Industry Council and RenewableUK, as well as UK-wide collaborative research programmes like the Offshore Wind Evidence and Change Programme. Additionally, a Holistic Network Design approach to new grid connections is helping to innovatively link projects to the grid, including the first collaborative joint transmission application. 

Further accelerating industry growth are advancements such as in-water demonstration projects, novel data collection techniques like eDNA sampling, and the application of the ‘Rochdale Envelope’, which enables design flexibility while ensuring potential effects are adequately assessed.