<p>Offshore wind could become a cornerstone of the world's power supply as steep cost reductions and improved technology unleash the potential of the green energy source, said the International Energy Agency (IEA) on Friday.</p>.<p>Renewables replacing fossil fuel is crucial to meet a globally-agreed goal of limiting temperature rise to below 2 degrees Celsius this century and the expansion of offshore wind could avoid 5-7 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions from the power sector globally, said the IEA.</p>.<p>Power generated from wind turbines at sea only accounts for 0.3% of global electricity generation today, said the IEA in what it called "the most comprehensive" study of offshore wind to date.</p>.<p>However, based on current and proposed policies, capacity is set to increase 15-fold over the next two decades, turning it into a $1-trillion business, it said.</p>.<p>"In the past decade, two major areas of technological innovation have been game-changers in the energy system by substantially driving down costs: the shale revolution and the rise of solar PV," said IEA executive director Fatih Birol.</p>.<p>"And offshore wind has the potential to join their ranks in terms of steep cost reduction."</p>.<p>Last year it cost more than $4 billion to build a 1-gigawatt offshore wind project, including transmission, but the cost is set to drop by more than 40% over the next decade, the IEA said.</p>.<p>In Europe, offshore wind will soon beat new natural gas-fired capacity on cost and be on a par with solar photovoltaics (PV) and onshore wind while in China, it is set to become competitive with new coal-fired capacity around 2030, it added.</p>.<p>However, it cautioned that large investments into onshore grid infrastructure and real political action were needed.</p>.<p>"More and more of that potential is coming within reach, but much work remains to be done by governments and industry for it to become a mainstay of clean energy transitions," said Birol.</p>.<p>While the green transition is increasingly taking over the global political agenda, there is a growing disconnect between climate ambitions and real-life emissions trends as energy-related CO2 emissions reached a historic high last year.</p>.<p>The first offshore turbines were installed in 1991 in Denmark, which last year produced 15% of its electricity from offshore wind.</p>.<p>The UK today has the biggest capacity but the industry is growing, especially in the United States and in Asian countries, including Taiwan and Japan.</p>
<p>Offshore wind could become a cornerstone of the world's power supply as steep cost reductions and improved technology unleash the potential of the green energy source, said the International Energy Agency (IEA) on Friday.</p>.<p>Renewables replacing fossil fuel is crucial to meet a globally-agreed goal of limiting temperature rise to below 2 degrees Celsius this century and the expansion of offshore wind could avoid 5-7 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions from the power sector globally, said the IEA.</p>.<p>Power generated from wind turbines at sea only accounts for 0.3% of global electricity generation today, said the IEA in what it called "the most comprehensive" study of offshore wind to date.</p>.<p>However, based on current and proposed policies, capacity is set to increase 15-fold over the next two decades, turning it into a $1-trillion business, it said.</p>.<p>"In the past decade, two major areas of technological innovation have been game-changers in the energy system by substantially driving down costs: the shale revolution and the rise of solar PV," said IEA executive director Fatih Birol.</p>.<p>"And offshore wind has the potential to join their ranks in terms of steep cost reduction."</p>.<p>Last year it cost more than $4 billion to build a 1-gigawatt offshore wind project, including transmission, but the cost is set to drop by more than 40% over the next decade, the IEA said.</p>.<p>In Europe, offshore wind will soon beat new natural gas-fired capacity on cost and be on a par with solar photovoltaics (PV) and onshore wind while in China, it is set to become competitive with new coal-fired capacity around 2030, it added.</p>.<p>However, it cautioned that large investments into onshore grid infrastructure and real political action were needed.</p>.<p>"More and more of that potential is coming within reach, but much work remains to be done by governments and industry for it to become a mainstay of clean energy transitions," said Birol.</p>.<p>While the green transition is increasingly taking over the global political agenda, there is a growing disconnect between climate ambitions and real-life emissions trends as energy-related CO2 emissions reached a historic high last year.</p>.<p>The first offshore turbines were installed in 1991 in Denmark, which last year produced 15% of its electricity from offshore wind.</p>.<p>The UK today has the biggest capacity but the industry is growing, especially in the United States and in Asian countries, including Taiwan and Japan.</p>