OFFSHORE WIND development in emerging markets like the Philippines can be spurred on with concessional finance to bring down costs, the World Bank (WB) said.
“The higher cost of the first projects in a new offshore wind market presents an initial barrier of affordability for developing-country governments and the ratepayers they represent,” it said in a recent report.
“Using concessional finance to reduce the initial cost premium presents a high impact opportunity to enable emerging market governments to commit to offshore wind and accelerate global decarbonization efforts,” it added.
The World Bank said that offshore wind is key to meeting global decarbonization goals and achieving net zero emissions.
“It can provide large-scale, clean, reliable electricity generation with the potential to stimulate valuable economic benefits and industrial development,” it said.
According to some estimates, there will be a need for 2,000 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind by 2050 for the energy transition.
“The global roll-out of offshore wind is growing quickly, with 21 GW added in 2021 alone; however, developing countries — also known as emerging markets — are yet to deploy offshore wind; progress needs to be accelerated,” it added.
The World Bank noted that emerging markets like the Philippines, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Colombia, India, Poland, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Türkiye, and Vietnam have begun exploring offshore wind.
However, it added that offshore development in emerging markets without public support would likely result in “a cost of power substantially higher than that of developing an onshore wind or solar photovoltaic (PV) project of the same size in the same market.” — Luisa Maria Jacinta C. Jocson
